FEBRUARY 19th 2037
PRESENT DAY
"Where am I? What the hell is this place?" a man tied and covered in lead shielding screamed as he was thrown down from the vehicle's trunk. The blind fold placed over his head wouldn't allow him see anything, he was brought in from the university area, just outside of the damaged containment facility, it was weird he was still fully conscious after being there at all. The Humvee's engine stopped abruptly when the Sarge jumped out of the vehicle's driver side seat.
"Rick! Take him to the container room downstairs"
"Yes sir" Rick answered "you're with me" he added assigning another armed man to himself. They both walked down a tunnel together.
"Where's goddamn McCarthy" he paused and looked to me "there you are" He said pointing "get someone on the situation ASAP" he added
"I'm sorry sir, I don't think I we have the resources or personnel that could tend to the man, and he would have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation... Or worse, Relilium" I said but he just looked at me and walked to the middle of the garage. "Gather round people, there's a new development" he looked at me and said "I don't care McCarthy, get someone on it yesterday or we'll cut him open. He was exposed to fatal radiations but is still alive, I need to know why" he stopped, "look here everyone, I'll have the control room prepped for a station wide broadcast in 5 minutesā¦"
I left the garage through the tunnel opposite the Humvee while he was still speaking, the medical bay was a few floors down but I couldn't have the man checked there, it was too risky. The container bay could work but it was not designed to contain relilium radiation; I was a little confused. As I got to the elevator, I heard my name being called from behind me, I turned around and said upon seeing the person calling me "Doctor Ray, what's up?"
"Roselyn, I heard about that guy found in the devils playground, what's that about?" He asked
"Yeah the Sarge caught him on a drone camera on Tuesday; we've been watching him since then. Today he moved outside of the severely contaminated zone so the Sarge made a move on him"
"But we don't have a relilium radiation containment facility here, how do we keep him?" He asked
"I told the Sarge but he wouldn't listen, I'm sure they'll put him in the container room, it's on the lowest basement floor of the complex so that amount of concrete should block out most of the radiation"
"Let's hope so, we can't endanger everyone here you know"
"I know but when you think about it, it's worth studying right... I mean he was there for over 2 days and is still alive, that's weird right"
"Well I'll ready the biohazard suits just in case, and I would assume I should call that damn nuclear scientist rightā¦ what's his name again?" he asked rhetorically, looking to the steel frame of the tunnel
"Walker" I said "That's right, call him" I said. "See you downstairs?" I asked as I got into the elevator
"Sure" he said. As the elevator doors closed, the thought of what was happening in the world crossed my mind, I couldn't shake of the fact that humanity was threatened, and it wasn't even our fault. When I was younger I used to think that if the world would end, it would be aliens or some nuclear war; guess I was wrong. The cranking elevator noise didn't help the thought at all, being in another confined space with loud annoying noise was exactly what I needed, but then again we didn't build the elevator and it was ancient. I wished my little brother was still alive, I wished he was with me; he knew how to cheer me up. Four years was a long time but the memories of my family still seemed fresh, the pain still seemed fresh. I sighed as tears rolled down gently down my face, I felt like I should die, I kept creating scenarios in my head of me rescuing them at the last moment, I wished every day that I was able to get them away from the house on the day of the explosion, if only I had come to visit they wouldn't have been home that day. As the elevator came to a stop, my attention was drawn back to the reality of things, the doors opened up and I stepped out of it and walked towards the container room
"McCarthy, get your ass over here" Rick called rudely, I always disliked him because of his bad behaviour, he thinks we were all soldiers before the global outbreak of the Relilium infection. I guess it wasn't his fault, after the outbreak we all lost something.
"Yes Rick, that's exactly what I was doing" I answered and walked a bit faster to him, "any particular problem?" I asked as I got to him
"The guy is not talking to us; Sarge thinks your expertise on psychology might be useful"
"I thought I was supposed to get someone to handle him"
"Sarge thought it would be best if he handled him by himself, as you weren't anywhere to be foundā¦" that's right, I was in the elevator longer than I thought, it was faulty and occasionally got stuck, I must have been lost in thoughts when it happened.
"What do you think?"
"I think it's a waste of time, we should beat him" he said
"Wait you guys didn't remove him from the lead coated biohazard..."
"Relax, he's been tested and the dosimeter read only about 0.9 roentgens, doctor Osamu said that's the equivalent of a full body CT-scan"
"That's not possible!" I exclaimed "double check" I said
"They did, same results", I immediately rushed to the container room and barged inside, everyone turned to me, they were all surprised the way I stormed in,
"What is the problem McCarthy, where the hell have you been?" The Sarge asked "you refused to get someone on him so as usual I have to do it myself"
"You all shouldn't be in here it's dangerous" I said walking to the Sarge, I was actually pretty frightened but tried to hide it
"It's okay, we checked for radiation, he's clean that's why we need him talking"
"But he was exposed to dangerous levels of radiation"
"And you made that point clear earlier, get in there and talk to him" the Sarge said, every other person in the room including Efomo, a fellow doctor and my friend who I thought would stop the Sarge didn't, they were all waiting for me to go in, probably because I was the best human behavioral analyst they had.Ā The container room had been modified a few weeks back, the Sarge turned one of the three rooms to a holding cell and another to a prison cell; the last was a research lab to handle anything that might have been in contact with relilium, I was there most of the time but that was the first time I was in the holding room.
"No way I'm going in there, I'd rather be shot" I said, the serge looked to me in disappointment and disgust
"Are you mad" he said, "get in the goddamn cell" he added pointing to the person inside the cell,
"Jamie!" I exclaimed as I looked through the door's vent
"I'm sorry what did you say?" Efomo asked, I closed my eyes and ducked while shaking my head, I refused to believe what my eyes had seen.
"Do you know him?" The Sarge asked, I'm sure he was thinking a lot of things at the time but I was as confused as a bat in daylight. I knew Jamie while I was still in school and he had somewhat of a temper and a short fuse but he was listed as a primary victim of the explosion of 33. I knew no one else was aware of that. I looked at the Sarge and stuttered a little before I could say anything, the look on his face clearly showed that he had gotten impatient with me and would have screamed at any minute.
"I'm sorry, we went to school together, and he was studying um... He studied biophysics while I read biomechanics. He should be dead 4 years ago, I don't understand" I said pointing to him
"So you know him, that's better, it'll be easier to talk to him" the Sarge said with a more excited look, he assumed it was progress. "Go inside now, think of something good to say" he added, I wondered how he thought at times, he clearly heard what I said but didn't care besides the kind of situation I had found myself couldn't allow me to think of anything good, how did the Sarge want me to do it?, I asked myself. As arguing with the Sarge didn't normally help, I walked in the container room and closed the door behind me without giving it much thought. Jamie had his head down, he was cuffed to the chair so he couldn't do much with his hands, I signaled the two soldiers Sarge had appointed to stand beside him and they surprisingly obeyed, perhaps because they knew heĀ was outside and had sent me in. I walked and took a chair opposite Jamie and said
"Hey Jamie" he jerked a little in shock, he hadn't told anyone his name so he was surprised how I'd found out what it was but he still said nothing "look at me Jamie" I said again, he looked up and exclaimed in shock as his eyeballs grew so large as if they would explode
"Rose!" He stared at me for a few more seconds before he spoke again "wha... What! How... Sorry, you're still alive?"
"Of course I'm alive, how are you still alive? I mean everyone I knew said you had died in the explosion" he looked confused and scared and at the same time excited, perhaps because he'd seen a familiar face or perhaps he was thinking of what to say
"I was supposed to meet a friend at maingate that day but he cancelled last minute so I never went, I was at R.V service apartments when I heard about the explosion and I fled the city immediately, as everyone else did"
"You've been in the red zone for days, how are you still alive?" I asked him but he kept quiet "common Jamie you gotta talk to me, everyone outside want to cut you open and carry out experiments on you, I'm the only thing keeping them from doing that"
"What! Has humanity reduced itself to such savagery?" He asked me, without waiting for my answer, he answered "I don't know how okay, I was searching for Larry there, the last time we talked, his signal was broadcast from there and I was hoping I would meet him and get the key-card to the private bunker where he has a ton of goods. But when I got there, the draugrs weren't active and wouldn't attack me so I assumed it was also safe there, I assumed they were evolving or had developed a sense of same species kind or something"
"They didn't attack you?" I asked with a silly look on my face, he was telling the funniest joke at a time like that "did you also fall from the moon?" I added, taunting him
"No, they just walked pass me, while staring at me most of the time, sometimes they would just initiate a chaseĀ and then let me go"
"Don't joke with me" I said staring through the corner of my eyes at him
"Does it look like I'm joking? Why the hell do you think I stayed there that long?"
"Amazing" I said surprised and turned to the two way mirror "I think he might beā¦ I dunnoā¦ umā¦resistant or immune sir, to the Relilium and somehow that has prevented his thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine or any form of radiation at all". The Sarge barged in along with Steve and pushed me aside
"What are you saying?" He asked Jamie
"I don't know why I was not affected okay; I just wanna leave this place"
"I need his blood sir" Steve said
"You're not taking his blood" I retorted, the Sarge looked at me in anger
"Doctor" he said looking at Steve "Take as much blood as you want, Rick get in here and hold him down". He looked at me "are you mad McCarthy? Aren't you supposed to be helping us?" He asked, I was pretty sure he wanted to shoot me that moment, he pretty much didn't like me, none of the soldiers did
"Sir I get that we're trying to cure the Relilium infection and save humankind but if we keep going down this road we'll lose our humanity on the way, we've already lost so much" I Said
"Shut the hell up and do what you're told McCarthy, next time you challenge me, you're off my base"
"Okay what if we take all his blood and we can't cure relilium? What if we need someone to do a recon mission or something in the devils playground? We can't study relilium but he can" I looked between the Sarge and the mirror "it's like no one even thought of the good side of finding him, the advantages we could have"
"I know none of you would want to accept that what she said is correct but it actually is" Efomo Said, the Sarge just laughed, he knew I was right but he didn't care, he just wanted a cure no matter the cost at which it came, I guess he was already losing his humanity. Doctor Steve's assistant; Eric Osamu rushed in with a plastic case that had the biohazard symbol drawn boldly with black paint on its cover; it was a containment cooler used to store highly radioactive or contaminated materials, I just kept trying to think of the possible things that could be inside. He opened it and simple pulled out an already assembled injection, it was large and really scary, they were in so much of a rush to get his blood, they too were desperate to get out of the base. Funny how the world works when men are desperate, they would begin to think like cows or something, I just shook my head and walked out of the cell,
"McCarthy!" The Sarge exclaimed, I stopped just under the lintel "you're not going to say anything?" He asked, I shook my head because even if I said anything, he would just ignore it so there wasn't a point, he just sighed and walked closer to me "look we're not blood sucking demons okay, the doc would only take a little for experiments" his tone was reassuring and it did get me off the edge, I believed him but I wanted to seem hard-headed so I just sighed and left, Efomo followed me and apologized for not saying anything sooner and kept trying to calm me down, it was fun to be respected like that, I'm sure everyone was amazed at the way I stood up to the Sarge and God knows I nearly shit myself doing it. At least now the Sarge would behave himself a bit around me.
"Look Efomo just leave me alone okay, I'll be in my cubicle if anyone important needs me"
"Roselyn, the Sarge was there, I didn't want him all over me okay"
"Leave me the fuck alone" I said with a loud voice while I pushed him back a little, the expression on his face was so funny to watch, he was like a child that had fucked up and was scared, I should've been an actress, I was so good at it, and I didn't even know. He staggered a bit and stopped then and then he immediately and turned around, heading back to the container room. I took the stairs up about four flights to my floor, the damn elevator was taking too long to get down, why the hell will a station this big have just two elevators I would've ask myself but wouldn't ever find an answer. My cubicle was the third room to the left from the elevator, it was home as I had come to know, my whole life's work since the explosion was there, my computer and most of the time my best friend Vanessa was there, she lost contact with most of her family after the accident, she had only her father and little brother left, in one of.tge super cities, it was also a hard time for her. So she kept those thoughts at bay by looking through my stuff, I had a book I always wrote my random thoughts in, and Judging from the way my door was left open, she was inside "I have always told you to shut the door when you enter Vanessa" I said as I entered and shut the door behind me, she sat in the bed holding an old box about the size of a microwave;
"Sorry babe, couldn't help it" she said, I just signed and went to the desk where my laptop was open
"Did you use my laptop?"
"Yeah I was trying to find out how to fix this" she said looking down on the box
"Common Vee, it's hard to keep internet connection up, you have to be careful the way you use it"
"Yeah whatever" she said, even though she was very nonchalant and disorganized, I loved her, she was there for me when I first arrived here, after realizing my family was gone. We were all we had
"So what did the Sarge drag in today" she said without looking at me
"Remember the guy I told you about, the one we spotted on the black streak's camera"
"Yeah"
"The Sarge brought him in, his bloods been taken now for research"
"That guy is infected, why would the Sarge bring him in?" She exclaimed
"That's just it, the 9 hour incubation period is over, the longest delay before a person lose himself is 22 hours, this guy is still himself and he's been inside the school for at least 60 hours, he's clean"
"Don't fuck with me girl"
"I'm not" i said
"Go sell your bullshit to someone else" she said "you know what this is?" She asked; she was a guru at engineering so she would naturally be with broken machines and stuff, I didn't care all that much about computers only my exoskeleton enhancements power source which she was helping me design.
"Why the fuck would I know what it is" I said looking at her from my desk, she was disappointed and just frustrated, it seemed like it was giving her a hard time and what I said didn't help things, "alright I'm sorry, what is it?" She hesitated before she answered, but she loved me too much to walk out on me, I giggled a little and got up from the chair and moved to the bed
"It's a mother engine" she said
"A mother engine really, you can't get your hands on one of those, they're extinct, after the accident"
"I know, it came in with the scrap from the mission this morning, I almost didn't recognize it in the dirt"
"Wait are you kidding" I asked, the look on her face suggested otherwise, she had found a mother engine, the stuff was nicknamed mother engine because once connected to any onboard computer, it supercharges the power core, in come cases it acts as the power core and could releases insane energy that could move an aircraft carrier at 40% the speed of sound. They were manufactured by spacejump corporation in 2021 as the 'jump engine' they're legendary equipment and Vanessa just found one of the first generations of it "you should tell the Sarge"
"I know, right after i get it to work, I would... there was a project the Sarge had put on hold but with this, it'll definitely be finished"
"What about the exoskeleton project" I asked, she dropped the box,
"Shit" she said "that's actually why I came, I finished rebuilding the software program all that's left is a power source"
"You're literally holding a mother engine in your hand" she looked at me in surprise,
"What!" She exclaimed "it's a heavy particle fusion engine; power from it would literally overload the exoskeletons until they explode"
"Really" I asked
"It was designed to power giant rockets and sky fortresses. The only power source I can think of that would power the skeletons is the star globe battery, but they're also extinct"
"Damn, so what do we do" I asked
"We have to halt that project too, the current batteries would only last a couple of minutes say twenty fiveā¦thirty minutes before they run out and you don't want to be out in the open when that happens"
"Fuck" I said, "Don't tell the Sarge, it's the only reason I'm still among the elite class on this base" I said in a sarcastic tone, I was teasing myself, just to make me feel better, such stupid thing to do. I sighed and looked at her, I honestly didn't know what to do to make the exoskeleton work on less power I'm sure Vanessa was thinking too, in the middle of our brainstorming, an alarm went off and the whole base went on lock down, the power went out and air circulation stopped, the lights dimmed a little and fear gripped me, Vanessa was also frightened, I couldn't even try to think of what happened, it was the first time it happened, I didn't know what it meant.
"No!" she exclaimed "were you serious about the Sarge bringing in that guy from the contaminated area" she Asked, I nodded in fear and curiosity
"What happened" I asked, she seemed to know something about the alarm that I didn't,
"About a year ago, the Sarge had me install a software program in the system computer's mainframe, once Relilium is detected it shuts the whole base down and starts to cycle through the levels to determine the contaminated areas and keep them shut down, keep the infection there"
"That's what you were working on in the ventilation system that time?" I asked
"Yeah, took us seven months to complete it, it should release the locks on the door and open the vents in a cou..." A clicking sound came from the door as the lights brightened right back up "it's not this floor" she said
"Jamie" I spoke in a very low tone, she turned around and asked
"Who's that?"
"It's the guy the Sarge brought in" I answered "could it be that his incubation period was delayed?"
"You've seen him?" She asked
"Yes" I answered more politely than usual
"Then it's unlikely, this floor wouldn't have been released" she stormed out of the room and looked down both corridors, she ran the other way, to the stairs and I followed her, the elevator was on lockdown still, some soldiers ran past us downstairs to the basement floors and we followed them, Jamie had to know something about it. As we got there, we saw the Sarge and everyone else in front of the lab's door, inside was Doctor Steve and Eric, they'd been locked in
"The hell is going on" Vanessa asked, Efomo turned around and said
"Steven dropped the injection with the prisoner's blood and it broke, wounding him, then the system triggered an alarm and locked down"
"Apparently, Doctor Ray said the relilium in the blood is still infectious if directly administered to another person. Steve is infected" Rick said
"And Eric" I asked
"He's probably not but the system won't allow the door to open so..."
"Damn" Vanessa said "Sarge you gotta burn him"
"What" I exclaimed, along with Efomo and Rick
"Are you mad?" He paused "he's one of us"
"No he was one of us, now he's a draugr, his being alive on the base means doom for us all, and there are at least 300 people on the base now"
"It's not a trade we can make, one for three hundred" Doctor Ray pointed out, the argument intensified and the Sarge just kept quiet, I know he had a longer backstory with Doctor Steve so I couldn't imagine him doing it.
"We can't burn him" he exclaimed, everyone kept quiet for a while and then Vanessa spoke
"Life isn't always fair Sarge, if we don't burn him, the lab as Well as the entire base could go down in a day, I know its hard but we don't have a choice"
"I'm right here" doctor Steve said banging the metal frame of the door, "I can hear you all, you're like actually making things worse for me, you want to burn me and you're saying It to my face" he said, then he looked at me "McCarthy why aren't you saying anything?" He asked "Jesus Christ; the hell is wrong with you people? The Sarge was in a Humvee with that guy for two fucking hours, I mean they literally drove like a hundred kilometers to get here, they're not infected" he said
"Yes but they weren't drinking his blood in the Humvee orā¦ he wasn't breathing into their mouths so they didn't get the infection that resided in his blood" Efomo explained
"I'm thinking" I said replying to Doctor Steve question, the Sarge looked to me,
"Thinking of what McCarthy"
"The best line of action sir"
"And"
"Well even if we burn him here, we'll still need to move the infected body and clear the lab. Burning him isn't the best line of action here"
"What the hell are you talking about Rose" Vanessa said "you hate his ass"
"Yeah but the best line of action would be to use him as bait to draw the draugrs away on our next movement outside, that way we won't lose anything" doctor Steve looked at me on shock, as did the Sarge, they were confused and irritated, I'm sure they didn't see that coming
"You're crazy McCarthy" Rick said taking some steps back, I could see the fear all over his face, that would teach them not to look down on me anymore "karma is a bitch isn't she doctor" I said to Steve "I told you not to take his blood but you insisted and now you're fucked" the Sarge looked at me as did Efomo who wanted to talk but didn't, Vanessa was really happy inside, even though it was sad what was happening, I felt like he deserved it, I must be a horrible person then again they probably thought i was joking. And then a buzzing alarm sounded and the lights came back on completely, the door was released and an automated computer voice from inside the lab said "relilium samples analyzed, contamination contained, lab extension secure" then the lab was depressurized and the door opened, we were actually all in a literal state of shock in that moment, I mean what on earth, he was infected and now the system is letting him out, how does that happen? Could it be a faulty system and now were all infected or could be a simple misunderstanding.
"Vanessa" I looked around "what just happened?" I asked but she remained silent, an overwhelming surprise was all over her face, thought she tried to hide it, she clearly didn't understand what was happening even though she designed most of the core parts of the system computer. The door opened and even Steve was afraid to come out, it was an all-round feeling, none of us understood why the system released the door, maybe Jamie was planning to escape and infiltrated the system somehow or maybe his blood did not contain Relilium at all, unless; no that shouldn't be possible, it probably was something else. Ray and Steve looked suspiciously at me from where they stood, they knew something or at least had a theory, since they also gave everyone else the same look I'm guessing they weren't entirely sure either, but it seemed we had a similar theory
"Could it at the very least be possible" I Said while facing Ray, he looked conflicted and lost in thoughts, his hands moved involuntarily and he avoided eye contact extremely, he was not sure and didn't want to give me a wrong answer but his behaviour gave it away, without answering me he answered, it was possible and as we had eliminated the impossible the only explanation however improbable was the correct one
"I see" Steve said, as I thought, he too had arrived at the same conclusion, the blood was in fact infected but it still wasn't clear what was going on
"We should run some more tests" I said
"What's going on" the Sarge asked, he had gotten fed up of our sideways talking, he was probably wondering how I could arrive at a similar conclusions with Ray and Steve but I don't blame him, all the time he spent off the base he wouldn't have known what I'd been up to, Ray and I had been in the labs a lot so I had learnt a lot about blood and chemicals and stuff I didn't know before. The air in the basement changed, everyone was now curious to know our theory
"Doctor" The Sarge exclaimed looking back at Steve "what is all this talk about" he asked
"I have a theory" he replied
"Well"
"If you remove the situations that probably won't ever happen, what remains is that the prisoner's blood contains Relilium" everyone looked shocked but yet disappointed, they'd figured that much out already, they needed a more mind blowing explanation and I had it, as it turned out Steve was not still sure about what to say, he was cautious not to cause unnecessary spread of wrong information, damn doctor
"It may be possible that Jamie's immunity has helped him develop a new isotope of Relilium" I suggested
"That's what I thought too but it shouldn't be possible" Ray said "but it would explain why the computer flagged it at first as a contamination" he added. Efomo took some steps back and then ran towards the stairs,
"Wait for me" Vanessa shouted, somehow she knew he was going to the computer control center on the second floor, I'm sure they wanted to confirm that there was nothing wrong with the computer.
"Steve, you should analyze the blood samples now" the Sarge Said
"Should I help him out or do you have something else for me to do?" I asked him, he looked around and sighed "okay everyone get back to what you were doing, McCarthy, stay with that Jamie, try to talk to him, make him trust us" he said. Of course he did, it was probably the smartest thing he could have done at the time, and I personally wanted it, it had been a while since I saw Jamie, I could use the catching up. "Yes sir"
Apart from Ray, Steve and Eric, everyone else went upstairs, surprisingly Doctor Nathan never showed, and he was supposed to be the top nuclear physics on the base even though his experience level was not very high, he was doing quite okay on the base. I walked to the holding cell which was two rooms from the lab while the Sarge went upstairs.
"What was that alarm?" Jamie asked as soon as I entered, the Sarge didn't have him removed from the hand-cuffs, why would he do something like that? What if the emergency was a power failure or something else, he could have died in there but then again it's the Sarge, he acts irrationally and authoritatively.
"It's nothing, a false alarm" I said "I'll take the cuffs of right away" I looked him in the face "Don't attack me" I said trying to make a joke, he pretty much didn't seem to care about my joke or he didn't get the reference.
"What is this place" he asked with a fearful look which also reflected in his tone, he must've assumed he was in some secret anti-human establishment or something of the sort. I sighed lightly, the Sarge wouldn't approve of me telling him but if we needed his trust, it was the best I could do.
"Look, I never told you this okay" I stopped to think things through "then again they're probably watching me so..."
"They're watching you?" He gave a disgusted look, but it wasn't directed at me, "what exactly do they do here?" He added,
"Look Jamie it's not what they do here, it's you, they're freaked out because you're here"
"Why am I a problem? I didn't ask to come here" he said and he had a point but we couldn't let such an opportunity go by and he probably wouldn't have come with us so... Well shit happens
"Jamie I'm sorry about that but let's face it, you wouldn't have come with us if we had asked" I said
"You don't know that" he answered
"When I came to Benin looking for my family after the accident, they asked me to come with them; I refused so they had to arrest me to bring me here. That's how people think in situations like that" I said
"Here eh... Where's here" he asked throwing his hands in the air up to his shoulder level "where the hell is here"
"You're in The Allen research facility or A.R.F for short"
"The Allen what"
"The Allen research facility in Ughoton, Benin city"
"What" he said, apparently he still didn't believe me or he didn't understand what I Said which was bizarre because I was speaking English
"Look The Allen was built back in the 70s as a nuclear research lab to study Uranium, Neptunium and Plutonium for military uses and for nuclear reactors during the cold war. After the cold war it was abandoned here and with the explosion of 33, it was reactivated, retrofitted and turned into a base of operations for the atomic disasters prevention and containment agency"
"Wait so Nigeria had a nuclear lab of this magnitude in the 70s? But we weren't even involved in the cold war"
"The lab was not Nigeria's obviously" I said "since the union of Soviet socialist Republics was all up America's ass, they saw the need for an off shore-invisible nuclear base, luckily, Nigeria was used and now it's become beneficial to us"
"But why here? Why use this 60 year old building?" He asked, I smiled at him in a very scary way, he had no idea where he really was
"It was a nuclear base designed to keep radiations inside or outside, there was a nuclear accident... That's supposed to be pretty obvious by now" I said "and the base is not a 60 year old building, it took about eight months to reactivate and renovate the useful areas of the base"
"The useful areas"
"The whole base is underground Jamie, the med wing, the security wing, the living area and the research wing. The rest of the base is storage and there's the bridge and another area were fixing up to act as another Living area"
"What!" He exclaimed
"It was a secret base man, you didn't think people would have notice a 60 year old eight storey nuclear building since the cold war" he was clearly dumbfounded but I expected it, I think in that moment he realized how little he knew about anything
"How does all that fit underground?" He asked
"It's American, they do the impossible"
"But... It's gotta be at least four floors... How"
"It's actually just around ten floors, the basement floors are at the bottom of the whole base, there's about a floor and a half worth of concrete dividing it from the rest of the base, and super-reinforced steel doors on entrance and exit, guess it was for nuclear waste containment. That's about three floors, and then there's the medical wing and security wing's floor, which is the one directly above the basement floors, research wing and medical share the floor above the basement, while the floor above us is the research wing. This floor has been partitioned into a cell, research wing extension and containment unit. It used to be the container room"
"And the living area"
"The three floors above medical"
"That's what seven floors" he asked
"That's six; we don't count the concrete shield separating the base from the basement but whatever"
"Isn't the basement too dangerous to keep people here or leave the doors open?"
"There's a shaft with a ladder from here that leads straight to the surface, if anything goes on or wrong, we seal the entrance doors and open the shaft, throw whatever in from there without harming the base, also the basement has its own air circulation system in case of emergencies"
"Hold on, hold on. What you're saying makes no sense"
"Well above the living area is the command center, that's where the bridge is and above that is the computer bay, where the system computer operates and above that are the recreational area, training, sports and stuff, all on the same floor. Then there's a sister facility connected via a large hallway to the command center and there's the garage, the hanger... Actually six hangers, we only use there because we have just three ospreys and copters; and the reactor station, below that is the unused area that's about 400 feet around. The other three hangers house the sky fortress"
"How do you supply air and power for something this big?" he asked
"I just said reactor stationā¦ also, there's an offsite air intake system with two floors above ground and one under, the floors above ground have three motors about fifty feet around which spin at around 40,000rpm and are spun by a turbine control computer powered by the fusion reactor, the air discharge turbine is also offshore and it as well as the station are all powered by the 930MW fusion reactor on the Allen's sister floor three"
"Jesus Christ" he said "something like this has been in Nigeria since 1970?"
"I didn't believe it myself the first time I arrived" I looked around the room and it crossed my mind for the first time in a long time how long we'd been in the base, a lot had changed indeed, I honestly didn't know what to tell Jamie to get him to stay, it didn't seem like he wanted to stay, I don't think the Sarge wanted him on the base, it was all a big pile of shit. And then it crossed my mind, Jamie could really help our efforts to produce some sort of cure or vaccine for Relilium, maybe if I could make him understand that, he'd stay, hopefully. "Jamie, we've been studying Relilium for the past three years and have been working on a cure for the past year, but we're still nowhere" I said to him, he raised his head and looked at me
"And" he asked
"You're immune Jamie, you can handle Relilium, we can't, and we could analyze your blood and see why it's resistant"
"You want me to stay here" he said, he saw straight through my plan, he knew immediately what I wanted "I want to help Roselyn but I'm not wanted here and I hate being where I'm not wanted" he Said standing up to me, when he was closer to my face, he looked different, much more pretty than I remembered, his chocolate skin glowed like a candle fire, he was so smothering that for a second I stuttered, I guess some feelings just don't go away even after a long time, somehow I needed him to stay for more than his immunity, I was a little selfish but then again, aren't we all?
"Jamie it's not that they don't want you here, everyone's just on edge lately, scared and um..." I stopped to think of something reasonable to say but I couldn't think of a single thing, damn at a time like that, and then the Sarge Said through the station's main communication system, a really complex system of speakers spread around the station all connected and managed by the station's computer. He must have heard me try to convince Jamie to stay, he must have, through the camera microphone in the room, and perhaps I had wrong views about him because as it turned out, he still had a part of his humanity left in him
"Can I have your attention everyone" he said through the speaker "earlier today we brought a man in from the devils playground; at first I was reluctant to let him on the base but uh..." He sighed really loud, I guess he too didn't have the right words to describe things "I had lost hope that the world could ever return to the way it was, but seeing the man in the containment room today has restored that hope, I think he might be the breakthrough we've been hoping for. I know some of you probably wouldn't like him around, it's an extra mouth to feed and may be a burden to us but this is a burden we're going to have to carry if we wish to leave this facility and return home..." I finally understood, while the Sarge looked tough up close, he missed home and was tired of this hell-hole we now called home "we need that man here, we need to help him as he needs to help us, and I hope you all help him fit in. The alarm earlier was from a system error and we have it under control, keep doing what you were doing and do not panic. This is Sargent Jackson Kent, and I believe we'll get through this together" it had been a while since I heard his name, for the past months everyone just called him Sarge and it seemed he liked the name, more important, his speech got to Jamie, he was quiet and I'm sure he was thinking things through, I immediately thought of something that could get him to stay
"Jamie we could help each other couldn't we" I said, he looked like he was lost in his thoughts, perhaps the Sarge's broadcast had gotten to him or it was something else, he needed help with something, of course, a place to stay with food "you said something about a bunker earlier, is it stocked up with food and supplies?" I asked, he nodded as of to imply 'yes' but he wasn't sure of it, he must have hoped it was
"Are you sure?"
"Larry told me he stocked up on non-perishable goods for his supermarket there before the accident, before he could get there with his family, they were attacked and he barely survived with his daughter, they were living there and occasionally going to look for survivors once a week, every week since the time they got there about two months after the outbreak of the Relilium infection. I never heard from him after our last message"
"Have you seen this bunker before?" I asked
"In a Picture, yes" he made a grin face "What are you driving at?"
"What if we can break into the bunker and get those supplies, then will you stay? I mean if you're right his daughter may still be there" I said
"No I don't think so, it's been over three weeks, she should have answered my call via the communications module in the bunker. She probably went to find her father"
"I see" I answered "come with me"
"Where to" He asked
"To meet the Sarge, he would know how to go about this stuff"
"What's your game now?"
"I'm just trying to arrive at a solution that would be beneficial to us all" I answered, if that would make Jamie stay, I would have to convince the Sarge to allow it, "common" I said again as I went to the door, he followed behind me closely, the Sarge would be on the computer control center if I was correct that was like five floors above us, the elevator would've probably be in use so I walked to the stairs and opened the door,
"I see" he paused and touched the large steel door that was left open after the system released the locks, "this is the door you spoke of" he added
"Yeah" I answered with a nod, "common, we should be quick before they leave the computer room" I walked up the stairs and Jamie followed beside me, we were both quiet as we climbed the first flight, then he asked
"Why are you here?" He stopped climbing and I took about three steps before I turned around "how did you end up here?" he asked again
"What"
"The last I heard from you, you took an internship in that company Exadyne, with that exoskeleton project stuff, that was supposed to be in Lagos, how did you end up here" he asked, by heaven he had to ask, the one question I had successfully avoided for the last four years, he had to ask andĀ at some point I would have to give an answer to him, I turned around again and continued to go up the stairs, he also followed after a brief moment of waiting. I didn't want to answer him and some parts of me just wanted to lie but then what would be the point, I needed his trust so I guess I needed to tell him after all, the pity he'd have for me might have him stay, at the very least that may be a win situation
"You know I um... I was in Lagos at the time of the accident but um...um My family wasn't so lucky I guess, they died in the explosion, I mean I still don't even know if they did, I don't know anything" I said with a little humph as I kept climbing "you know for the past years I haven't been able to get over it, I tell people it'll be okay but I don't think it will"
"I'm sorry I... Sorry I didn't think"
"Of course you didn't, it's not your fault. I should let it go"
"You don't have to"
"It's my fault what happened to them, how can I let it go? But then again I'll have to move on at some point right, I'll have to let it go" I said
"Like I said you don't have to"
"What do you mean" I said nonchalantly while I started going up another flight of stairs, we were closer to the computer floor, a lot closer
"Maybe it was your fault, maybe not. Either ways, you can't know. The best thing to do is to hold on to their memories and live with it. Whether or not you caused their deaths, the thing is you're alive so you got to make sure their memories are honored" I stopped and looked to him as he walked beside me holding the rails, it seemed As if he was hurt as he talked but he was still at peace with himself, the thought of what he had gone through was a little frightening, when someone talked like that they had to have gone through a severe traumatic experience or something of the sort, maybe he lost someone too, I asked him but he smiled and continued walking upstairs, I went up with haste to catch up to him and asked him again
"What happened to you?" I held his hand "did you lose someone?" But he still wasn't talking, my plan had successfully failed and backfired on me, I was the one feeling pity for him, but something else bothered me, Jamie always had that look of grieve on his face, perhaps he had lost someone important even before the accident, or perhaps that's just who he is and I'm wrong. After climbing up about a thousand stairs, we arrived the computer floor, I immediately entered the main command room and saw the Sarge sitting on a table with a large wall and ten screens mounted on it, just opposite the door, Jamie entered the room and stood behind me, Vanessa and Efomo were in another room bordered with tempered glass windows on all sides, it was the system computer core, the CPU of the computer, they were still checking if there was a fault in the system, I assumed they were running a full system checkup which would take hours to complete, Ray and Steve were in the room with the Sarge, they must have gotten the results from the blood test they ran. The Sarge clearly knew I was coming and wanted me there for his next line of action, I kept thinking if it was related to the conversation Jamie and I had earlier or if it was completely different. As Vanessa saw me through the glass, she said something to Efomo and they both entered the room through a door beside the glass window. She sat on a chair in front of the computer console while Efomo leaned on the wall, the Sarge looked to me and said
"Good you are all here" he said "Steve" he pointed "call Rick, be should be somewhere on this floor. He left some seconds before you entered" he said, Steve nodded and walked to the door; as he opened the door, Rick came in from the left corridor, a strange coincidence? Yes but stuff like that happened a lot on the ARF, it wasn't exactly all that surprising.
"I assume you heard our conversation" I said
"That'll have to wait; I wanted you to get here first because you're one of the smartest persons here, so we need your opinion on things"
"What's that about?" I asked
"HQ requested weekly activity reports about two years ago and..."
"Everyone knows that you report to them what happens here. Why do you need me?" I said without letting him finish, he looked at me with a sullen face which made me feel goose bumps
"It's about him" he said pointing to Jamie "Doctor Steve thinks I should send him to the nexus to be examined there"
"Doctor Steve's an idiot sir" I looked at Steve "no offences but you're not reliable; your ideas are not reliable"
"Jesus Christ sir, we can't even have a rational conversation with McCarthy sir, it's been like two seconds and she's already throwing insults at me"
"It's not insults if they're true" Vanessa said supporting me, she usually always had my back, another good thing about her
"Look sir; if you report Jamie to the nexus, they'll have him transported there and let's be truthful to ourselves, they'll cut him open to see what's so special about him" I said
"What" Jamie took some steps backwards in shock "I don't like this nexus already"
"Rose has a point sir, and that's the truth, the nexus take really drastic actions and we can't risk that. Think of the good things he could do for us here" Vanessa said
"That's actually true sir, he can handle Relilium we can't handle" Efomo raised himself from the wall and leaned on a column beside the door, he looked to Ray who he probably hoped would support my point of view and they locked eyes, Ray turned to the Sarge and said
"Roselyn is right sir, I need him here to carry out proper research on the elements of Relilium, and maybe work out a cure for it"
"Rick" the Sargent called "what do you have to say" reluctantly, Rick spoke up
"I don't know much about science stuff but I think the nexus will be the best place to study Jamie Sir, they have better equipment there and staff and resources" he said "but if we're to be realistic, they'll most likely cut him sir"
"The thing is the nexus already knows about him, they can see our cameras" the Sarge said, I rolled my eyes with a sigh, that he hadn't figured it out at this time was disappointing,
"The nexus can't see our cameras or hear our audio, Vanessa blocked their access ages ago, she didn't like the idea of them spying on us"
"She can't do that" Rick said "can she?" He asked looking at her malevolently
"How did she do it?" the Sarge asked
"Are you kidding me?" I said looking around the room "look around guys, she practically designed most of the goddamn system" I stopped, short of words, I said "how could you not know this? There's literally an icon on the main monitor displaying the networks with access to the cameras feed, she blocked audio, video and all non-official communication access"
"Why the hell would you do that Vanessa? The nexus is our command center" he stood up and walked to her, his face furious and red, like he was going to explode spontaneously but Vanessa strangely remained calm, as if she was not scared at all, I couldn't even tell if she was, because I was scared like shit, it was not every day the Sarge got that angry
"I did it because they were spying on us sir, Eric came in here on day and I was sleeping, he said the cameras were cycling through the base and locating key personnel faces, he also said the lab was put up across all the screens as if someone was looking for something there"
"Eric is delusional Vanessa, he's not very straightforward or very smart either" the Sarge said
"But that's just it, he started ranting about a conspiracy by the nexus to destroy their works or take credit for it. But he wasn't lying, I setup micro cams to watch the monitors and they were cycling through the base locking on faces, when I woke up, they'll stop, if I wasn't there, they'll continue. It's a single uplink so whatever they do, I see and whatever I do, they see"
"That's normal, they're just precautious, these are dangerous times Vanessa" he said
"I know so I ran a deep system access checkup and it turned out a branch of the nexus was indeed Watching us, listening to us, even up to the bathrooms, that didn't seem precautionary so I took some measures to ensure our privacy" she said
"But you need my permission to do something like that"
"Really" I said "she's an engineer, they're control freaks, you didn't think she'll have deep access to the system" I asked, he looked at us like idiots, then he sighed a bit
"So you think the Nexus can't be trusted" he asked "they supply us most of the goddamn food we have McCarthy"
"I didn't say they can't be trusted sir, I said they're creeps and don't need to watch us all twenty four hours, Vanessa gave them access to some parts of the living area but their access is restricted to just those areas and of course your weekly reports" I answered him "so respectfully sir, the best thing to do would be to keep Jamie out of the report"
"Jamie; are you interested in staying here?" Rick asked him, he looked to me and back at Rick and nodded, the way we defended him must have made him realize the safest place he could be was with us on the base
"Yeah I'll stay, I'll help"
"Right then McCarthy, I will keep him out of my report if you agree that he'll be directly under Rick's supervision, I want him to report daily to Rick"
"What!" He exclaimed "what is this? Military school" He stopped and waited for a response but got none "I won't report to anyone"
"Then the nexus will like to meet you Jamie" the Sarge Said, I held Jamie's hand and pulled him to me, then I said in a whisper
"Accept his terms Jamie; it's bullshit, I know, but for your own good, you should"
"But I can leave when I want right"
"I don't think he'll let you leave at all Jamie, he seems serious this time, perhaps he's really concerned about you" I said, Jamie looked around the room and breathe out with his mouth really loudly,
"Whatever" he said "I accept your terms" he added
"Right then" he climbed on the table again "about the bunker, Rick will assemble some men and we'll take the choppers tomorrow, McCarthy; you, Vanessa and Walker will be on overwatch alright" he said, so he did hear us and he had already made a plan before we got there, was he hoping that things would go this way? Or did he make a random guess? Doesn't matter that much now, he stood up and walked to the door along with Rick, doctor Steve hissed at me and stormed out of the room with haste, he was still mad at me but I didn't blame him, idiocy was a very serious illness. Before the Sarge left, he said
"Efomo, the other bed space in your cabin, have Jamie settle in with you, and show him how things work here. Everyone get some rest, tomorrow morning Steve and Eric will debrief us on the results of the test, after which we'll commence operation 'bunker buster' that should be around nine or so" he said leaving us, I sighed, it had been a while since we had a busy day like today, though I was wrong about the blood test results coming in early, it would be another long day tomorrow so I needed to rest. Efomo took Jamie and left the room after we said our byes, Ray also left with a smile, he was pretty excited about Jamie staying, I didn't blame him though, Relilium had given him a really hard time in the past.
"Hey umā¦ hold on while I finish up the system check, it'll just be a minute" Vanessa said to me, of course I had to wait, she usually got pretty mad on occasions I didn't wait for her so I just needed to avoid the stress. I went to the console chair and sat down while she went into the computer core room to finish up. Afterwards we'd get something to eat before going to bed. As I sighed, it crossed my mind, we hadn't told the Sarge about the mother engine, he may have had us modify it to suit the exoskeletons and make expeditions easier, then again it was just a thought; Vanessa could have already told him.