Without the stations operating, the train still can move, but it will not be long, maybe five minutes, before it actually runs out of energy. And to mention, just by maintaining this temperature inside this carriage already takes a lot of energy.
- OK, I will close the train door and turn off all electrical appliances to preserve our energy source.
Albert turns off all lights and air conditioners. The carriage joins the eternal darkness, with a pinch of dim, red light, of the vast underground factories. By common sense, or specifically, some physics knowledge and maths equations, I know that it would not take long, before our body temperature make this last haven of coolness into a heat cage. We seriously stand no choice, if this power cut is not fixed in a short time.
And at this very moment, it has been some "short time" passing. Albert has attempted to contact the support team, but since all of the entrances connecting the underground facility and the ground level have been cut off from the power shortage and the communications are cut, the efforts are just to no avail. Not to mention that there is nothing much that can be done when dealt with this toxicity and heat level. The atmosphere inside the carriage starts becoming unbearable with the air filter and conditioner turning off.
- Albert, I know what I am saying here will be out of any sane mind, but as the only people actually inside the facility, we need to break the platform door and venture into the station. I will pay for the damage incurred. - I suggest.
- The best way is still to wait for the assistance outside, even in a hopeless way. But, if I can trust you with electronics, then OK. - Albert hesitates, before he agrees and open the carriage door.
Mirai grabs a fire extinguisher in the corner of the carriage and slams at the platform door, which is made of glass. The impact shatters the glass into pieces, making a way for us into the station. Albert and us enter the station.
The station is designed as a sight-seeing station for experts around the world to visit. Unlike other poorly restructured stations, this one is more well-designed. The train arrival area is located on the second floor of the station. There are protruding pathways of about a kilometre each, protected with transparent tubes, that act as sight-seeing paths. The rooms that are responsible for electric and energy works, as mentioned by Albert, are in the first floor. At a corner of the second floor, there is a ladder that links to the first floor.
I climb down the ladder first, followed by Mirai and Albert. The first floor is a straight corridor, with two rows of rooms on the sides.
- This room here is a control room. - Albert points at the room closest to us.
We enter the room. There is nothing inside, but a big holographic table in the middle. Albert scans his ID card and presses the power button. After logging in and some loading, a 3-D map of the underground facility pops up. The control room is highlighted in blue, marking our position. There is also a place highlighted in red. Albert points at that.
- You see this right? The red mark is at the generators in the first floor of the production station which we just went past. This means the power is disconnected, but the source of fault is unknown.
- So, can we go there and fix it? - I ask.
- I mean, I already place my trust in you anyway. But we only have one shot.
- What do you mean?
- We can redirect the energy source from production station to this station here. It will generate sufficient energy for one carriage to move exactly once.
- What are we waiting for? This is our only hope. - I urge him.
- Fine, fine. Go to the last room that says "Electric Generation", and calibrate the generators. I will be waiting here to do the reroute part.
Mirai and I leave the room, leavin Albert dealing with the administrative stuff. We reach the last room and enter it. There is only one generator, but the wires are connected so complicatedly and it is literally a matrix right there that would drive a person nuts just by looking at them. But not us and our enhanced vision.
I approach the generator and use the spectacle vision. After assessing the generator and the conenctions, it highlights the procedure, and we start fixing it.
- Yuusha, you just made a very bold and reckless statement, do you realise? - Mirai questions me, or in the correct terms, interrogates me. Her face looks serious.
- What do you mean? It is not like a wire or two can mess with our profession.
- Intruders, Yuusha. Intruders. We have made good deductions that this place will likely house the Intruders and their hidden facility. And not excluding this power cut. What if the Intruders are the culprit?
- OK, I get where you come from. But here, we literally have no choice. If it comes to Intruders, we would need to fight them. I would not risk exposing their presence to others.
- Listen. The assistance team from outside will rescue us first, and I do not think they will attempt to fix this fault soon. We can always come back tomorrow to deal with them ourselves first.
- Then who would guarantee that we would eliminate the Intruders before others see them?
- Then who would guarantee that we can actually do something in this state, huh? Think!
After the heated argument, we stop talking for the rest of the calibrating duration. All of the highlighted wires and nodes have been done, and the generator lights up. We come back to the first room, where Albert has finished rerouting the energy from the generator to the train carriage.
He looks at us facing away from each other, and smirks.
- Lovers' quarrels?
- No. - We answer simultaneously.
We climb back to the second floor and go back to the train carriage. For the first time again, the air conditioner is on again, bringing fresh air out of this life-threatening heat and carbon dioxide cage. Albert presses the button to close the train door, and starts the engine, The wheels start rolling, and the train moves in the opposite direction, back towards the produciton station.
- Sorry for raising my voice. I am a bit overwhelmed with that assertion of yours. But, you have a valid point out there.
- My bad. It was just the heat of the moment.
- Anyway, you just need to follow the route you draw for yourself. Let's make it out safely.
- Thanks, Mirai. Let's make it out safely.
Mirai and I reconcile. She moves to the seat next to mine and hands me something.
- Here is the backpack and the tablet. In case we need to split up, and you two are placed in a very desperate situation, hand Albert a random toy and try to survive. I will try to rejoin your group. - She whispers into my ear.
The fifteen minutes of travelling time feels like infinite, as if the gravity of our seriousness have warped time into nothingness. Out there, the factories are still working, so we conclude that this power cut is specifically targetting the rail and the train carriages, or to be even more specifically, us.
The train finally arrives at the station for production transportation. The familiar scene of the conveyor belts delivering the metal alloy slates to containers appear in front of our eyes. Albert presses the button, and the train and platform door open. The train also stops working.
- Well, this is the last bit of energy of the train already. It is now or nothing. - Albert speaks, but it sounds as if he just makes a sigh. Maybe he starts regretting his decision that just pops up out of nowhere.
Anyway, we will not let him disappointed.
By the way, Mirai's instinct is sharp, scaringly sharp, as if she is built solely for Intruders tracking and elimination. When I step down the station, a sense of eeriness and mystery engulfs the station. A bone-chilling breeze runs down my spine. Not wrong at all, this place reeks of Intruders.
- The generators are again downstairs. There is a stair that links between the floors. - Albert points at the only door that sticks out of the wall. It labels "STAIRS".
We approach the door. It seems like the door has not been opened for quite some time. Look at the dust layers that stack on the door as the sole evidence of how brutal time can be.
Wait, there is something off about the dust layers. The ground near the door has some scratch marks and the dust does not stack as much. This looks like the door is just recently opened.
Recently?
- Albert, do not open the door! There is a trap! - I shout.
It is too late.
Albert touches the door and slightly gives it a push. There is the sound of a thin string being cut. After one second of heavy silence after my shout and the string cut...
BOOM!