Chapter 35: Baseline
Course grains of rusty reddish-orange sand, riding the hot, dry wind that invaded the desolate facility, swirled across the eroded marble floor, gathering as muddy clumps when caught by the slowly expanding pools of human blood, which was black as oil in the dark, shadowy interior. The temple once dedicated to science and human advancement was an eerie inversion of it’s former brightness and sterility. A scholarly effort founded on the ideals of improving and preserving human life had become a gruesome site of cruelty, violence, and slaughter.
Wary of potentially concealed threats, Eli’s weapon remained at the ready, tucked against his shoulder as he peered around every corner, inside every room, and under every rust-pitted decaying desk on the ground floor, methodically making his way to the building’s rear exit. A heavy, locked chain held the steel doors firmly shut from the inside. The chain was free of any signs of aging, and the padlock was still brand new, no scratches around the keyhole. The JSU had sealed those doors. They may have blocked off the back door so they only had to focus their efforts on guarding a single point of entry, but that also meant they blocked their only other escape route if they got attacked. When they got attacked.
Doubling back through the gore-filled lobby, he passed by the ruined elevator doors leading only to an empty shaft, and cautiously entered the emergency access stairwell. With no windows allowing sunlight to enter the concrete stairwell, a normal person would have seen nothing but total blackness. Eli, however, could see perfectly clearly. A thick layer of dust coated each step, handrail, and every other surface. The outlines of multiple sets of tracks, left by several different sizes of boots, went up and down the stairs, with more tracks descending the stairs than climbing them.
The boot tracks all appeared to have been made by normal, walking-pace footsteps and steady gaits. There were no twists or skids to the boot prints on the landings or near the door that would indicate someone had taken the stairs in a hurry, and no drag marks or blood that would be present if an injured person had gone through. It didn’t seem like anyone took the stairs to flee from the battle. Deciding he should follow the path most traveled, Eli took the stairs down to the underground level.
He was fairly confident he wouldn’t encounter anyone else at that point, but he wasn’t willing to gamble with his life by dropping his guard too soon. One step at a time, he quietly descended.
The basement corridor, just like the stairwell, was devoid of light. Except for a sliver of brightness shining through a partially open door on his left, halfway down the long hallway. His grip tightened around his rifle and he aimed toward the light source as he made a vigilant approach, cursing the ringing in his ears as he tried to listen closely for any movements other than his own.
He stuck close to the wall as he walked, watching the patch of light on the floor, looking out for any shadows that might pass through it as he got closer to room in question. Back pressed to the dusty wall at the room’s entrance, he stretched out his left hand and slowly pushed the door inward. It creaked open, but there were still no sounds or signs of movement from inside. Tucking his gun to his chin, he swooped into the room, jerking the rifle from side to side as he scanned for targets.
The room was empty. Not just empty of people, but empty of the derelict shelves, desks, lab equipment, and cabinets that occupied all the rooms he’d checked upstairs. The only thing inside the small room was another door. A thick, wide iron door, like the kind he’d expect to see on a bank vault. A semi-circle of scratches marred the concrete floor from where the vault door had been opened, and inside the metal-lined saferoom, a lantern cast white light over a square, one meter wide, open hatch on the ground.
“What the shit?” Eli breathed, aiming his rifle down into the tunnel.
Looking around him, scanning his surroundings, making triple sure he was alone, he climbed down the ladder below the floor hatch. His rifle bumped across his back with each step, and his boots clanked against the metal rungs, the noise echoing loudly in the steel-enclosed vertical shaft. If anyone was waiting at the bottom, they damn sure knew he was coming thanks to all the racket he couldn’t help making on his way down. He went almost five meters beneath the saferoom floor and, with only a few steps to go, dropped down off the ladder and spun around with his rifle raised.
A second, smaller security door hung open opposite the ladder. And still, he was alone. The room across from him was deeper than it was wide, roughly the size of an office supply room, with floor-to-ceiling steel shelves lining all three walls. Dozens of hard shell, black cases lined the shelves, arranged in neat, organized, perfectly spaced rows. Several of the cases had been removed from storage and lay on the floor, their lids flipped open to reveal their contents.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Eli squatted down to see what was inside the cases. One of them held two SSD hard drives nestled in a bed of protective foam padding, the others each contained an injector gun and three syringes filled with a clear liquid. He delicately lifted one of the syringes, turning it over in his hand to study the faded markings on the side.
“H.G.R. Baseline – 02.” He read aloud. “Expires: August, 2031…..”
Examining the other two vials, they revealed the same label and date, but different numbers. The syringes were a series of injections, one through three. He went over to the nearby shelves and flipped the cases open, all of them, rapidly searching every single container, leaving each case open when he hastily moved to the next. The secure room seemed to be dedicated to storing the syringes, because that’s all he found in the rest of the black cases.
Figuring he should secure at least one of the expired syringe sets and both of the hard drives, he consolidated them into a single black case and made his way back up the ladder. He jogged out of the safe room, one-handing his rifle just in case, climbed the stairs two at a time, and swerved around the bodies laying on the lobby floor as he ran outside.
Hailey had come back and parked his roller just inside the fence while he was busy searching the building. She’d apparently gone over to the ruined house where Eli ambushed the JSU patrol after freeing Lela, because she was collecting weapons and bullet casings from the area, stuffing the handguns and knives into the rucksack he’d left behind before their assault on the lab. Since there were no rifles anywhere to be seen, she must have already loaded them up somewhere.
“Hailey.” Eli called, heading over to where Vivi was dragging the hogtied, unconscious giantess toward the back of the panel van. “I need two more firebombs.”
“Right.” She immediately quit what she was doing, dropped the bag, and ran over to his roller.
Eli stopped to help Vivi get the tall woman lifted into the back of the van, setting the black case down on the sandy pavement. Vivi lifted the woman by the shoulders, Eli grabbed her by the legs, and together they hauled their captive to the vehicle and unceremoniously dumped her beside the white-haired man Vivi had already bound and put inside.
“Thanks for the help….” Vivi closed the back doors. “That bitch is heavy.” She nodded at the black case Eli was retrieving from where he’d set it down. “What’s that?”
“It’s what they were here for.” He put the case in the van’s passenger seat. “You can look inside if you want, just be very careful with it.”
“Here.” Hailey trotted up to him, holding out the Molotovs he’d requested.
“Thanks.” He nodded, cradled the incendiaries in one arm, then turned to Vivi. “You still have the lighter?”
“Yeah.” She fished it out of her pocket and passed it to him. “Do you need my help with….whatever you’re doing?”
“No, I’ve got it covered.” He put the lighter in his pocket, pulled out the keys he’d stolen, both sets, and gave them to his sister. “Just be ready to leave in two minutes. You too, Hailey. We’ve already been here too long.”
Turning on his heels, he ran back into the building, down the stairs, and into the saferoom at the bottom of the ladder. He sat one of the mason jars aside, pulled the rag from the hole in the lid of the other, and splashed ethanol all around the room and into the open cases. The powerful fumes from the high-proof fuel were trapped in the steel box-like room, giving Eli a slight dizziness behind his eyes, and a weak burning sensation in the top of his lungs with each breath.
He dumped the last bit of alcohol across the floor, then ditched the empty glass jar. Picking up the unlit Molotov, he climbed halfway up the ladder, going up as high as he could while still having a good angle to throw the fiery cocktail into the room below. With an elbow hooked around one of the rungs to hold himself in place, he pulled out the lighter and flicked it to life. He touched the flame to the alcohol-soaked cloth wick, blew out a tense breath, and hurled the riot bomb. A wave of instant heat roared to life when it crashed, spilling flames throughout the micro bunker, stinging his eyes before his reflexes made him turn away.
If the JSU wanted the inert serum, they were shit out of luck.
Paranoid of more enemy forces turning up at any time, and wanting to get Lela back to Mist Haven for thorough medical treatment, he pushed his tired legs to their limits, rushing up the rest of the ladder, up the stairs, and back outside.
“Alright.” He waved Hailey and Vivi over to meet him by the van. “It’s time to go. Hailey, you take the lead, and we’ll follow you in the van. And keep your radio on. I want regular updates on Lela’s condition, every fifteen minutes.”
“Alright. Should I go straight back to Mist Haven, or take side roads to throw them off our trail?” Hailey asked, looking as anxious as he felt.
“Straight back.” Eli said. “I’m more worried about Lela right now than I am about possibly being followed.”
“Got it.” Hailey nodded and ran off as Eli and Vivi went to the prisoner van.
“I’m driving.” Vivi said, directing Eli to the passenger seat with a point of her finger.
Eli grinned, holding up a hand in mock surrender. “You’re driving.”
He climbed into the van, tucking the black case on the floorboard behind his feet as he pulled the door shut. A few of the medical supplies from their roller had been laid out on the center console, so he tore open an alcohol pad and cleaned the blood off his hands as Vivi started to make a U-turn to follow behind Hailey.
“Mom’s gonna be sooo pissed.” Vivi commented.
Eli hissed when he wiped his ear with a fresh alcohol pad. “Why’s that?” He asked.
Vivi raised an eyebrow at him incredulously. “Uhh, because you got shot in the head?” She tapped the side of her head to indicate where he’d been hit.
“Well….” He cringed when the alcohol wipe made contact with the gash behind his ear. “At least she’ll be pissed at them, and not us.” He smirked.
Vivi silently drove past the cement sigh that had proven itself invaluable during the raid, stealing worried glances at him while he cleaned his bloody hair and skin around the wound.
“That was too close, Eli.” Her grip tightened on the steering wheel. “You almost….you could have died.”
“Haaahh.” Eli discarded the used cleaning wipes and leaned back with a sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. That was too damn close. I relied too much on them being poorly trained. I took a stupid risk, made a mistake, and got shot for it.” He turned in his seat to face Vivi. “But we saved an innocent girl from suffering a horrible death. I’d say that’s worth the risk, wouldn’t you?”
Vivi furrowed her brows at him, a small frown on her lips, then turned away to watch the road.
“It was still too close.” She mumbled stubbornly. “So, why’d you want Hailey checking in every fifteen minutes? Couldn’t she just radio us if Lela got worse?”
“Sure.” He agreed, picking up the last unopened cleaning cloth. “But she’s been awake for nearly two full days. The regular check-ins give her a recurring task to focus on, something to get her moving every few minutes so she’s less likely to fall asleep.”
Vivi nodded approvingly as she sped up to keep pace with Hailey. “You know, Hailey really impressed me back there. She followed orders well, took initiative, and didn’t freeze-up when all the shooting started. She’s got potential. I think we should keep her.”
“Keep her?” Eli chuckled, wiping the drying blood off his neck. “What, like a pet?”
“Keep her on the team, smartass.” She playfully rolled her eyes. “She’s reliable under pressure, and we’ll need people like her supporting our missions.”
“Well, I don’t disagree, but I also can’t help noticing you’ve promoted yourself from culler to operator before even doing a single day of culling work.”
“So? Is there a problem with that?” She grinned challengingly.
“No ma’am.” He laughed. “There’s no complaints from me. But you’ll have to talk to Equoni about it when we get back.”
Eli settled in for the long return trip, leaning back against the stiff headrest, trying to ignore the aches and pains in his tired limbs, and the throbbing wound in the side of his head. Thinking about the black case at his feet, he realized he was right about what he told Vivi when they left Mist Haven. He knew less than he thought he did.
