**** Elysium 1986 ****

The way to the disabled subway and back to the big steel door had not taken as long as they had expected. The conductor had been visibly relieved to see the three of them alive again, and he had been even more surprised when they had explained that they did not want to proceed to the next station, but rather stay in the tunnels. The repair itself had been no more than a quick replacement of the fuse tube, and after a few minutes the train was ready to depart again, to the cheers of the passengers, some of whom had been watching attentively. The conductor had also given the three of them a small first aid kit, which they used to disinfect Harry’s scratched face and Yuri’s thigh.
Back at the door, all was still quiet except for the monotonous hum of the spotlights illuminating the small battlefield. The bodies of the guards were nowhere to be seen, instead bloody drag marks stretched across the floor in the opposite direction of the tunnel.
“Guys…” Abigail began her sentence, pointing at the bloodstains. A cold shiver ran down her spine.
“Just don’t think about it,” Harry interrupted her with a smile, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “There’s a good side to it, too. If they’re full for a while now, at least they’ll leave us alone.” She took a deep breath and just nodded. Wordlessly, they approached the small metal box with the slit and the two dim lights. No writing, no symbols, nothing. Abigail pulled the red smart card from her pocket, the one Yuri had given her earlier, and gave the others a quick glance.
“Ready when you are,” Harry nodded encouragingly and slowly drew his sword. Anything could be lurking behind that door and it was better to have his weapon at the ready. Yuri also gripped the handle of the captured submachine gun and scowled. His outstretched index finger rested right next to the trigger. Abigail slid the smart card into the slot and the steel door swung inward surprisingly quickly. After a quick look around, Harry and Yuri lowered their weapons. There was no one in the large room before them. Yuri raised an eyebrow in thought.
“Is this entrance to swimming pool?” he wondered aloud. Harry agreed, it certainly looked like it. The floor was smooth gray concrete and the walls were all white tiled. However, it also contained all sorts of technical equipment, a large and sterile looking white desk, and several cabinets with glass doors revealing yellow full-body protective suits. There were also several very wide wooden boxes in one of the corners. A few chairs and a small table were also visible. On the opposite side of the door was a double door that could be opened by a toggle switch on the wall. Decontamination Chamber was written in large letters above the double doors. The TRAP agents cautiously entered the room to take a closer look.
“I’m really starting to think that those weren’t electricians out there…” Harry said, spinning around when suddenly a barking noise came from one of the wooden crates. Yuri paused and approached the corner, gun at the ready, but then made a puzzled face as he recognized the source of the noise. The wooden crates were barred on the side facing away from the entrance, which they had not been able to see when they came in. They were actually kennels, all but one empty. In one of them was a brown-and-white spotted hound that had obviously been awakened by the voices. When he saw Yuri, he immediately stopped barking, wagged his tail, stuck his snout through the bars as far as it would go, and whimpered. Inside the kennel was nothing but a crumpled, wet, urine-scented blanket and an overturned empty bowl. Obviously, this dog had been waiting to be set free for some time. Yuri took a quick look around because the kennel was padlocked. The other two joined him.
“We need to free dog,” Yuri said in no uncertain terms. He was reluctant to just shoot the lock open and possibly frighten the dog completely.
“Oooh, poor doggie!” Abigail whispered sympathetically, kneeling down beside him, but not daring to pet the sniffing muzzle at first, even though the dog began to whimper even more pitifully. Harry was already examining the desk and found what he was looking for. In one of the drawers was a small bunch of keys, which he tossed to Yuri, who immediately tried the padlock one by one. On the third try, the lock clicked open. The dog wagged his tail even harder and slipped out of the cage, immediately circling Yuri’s and Abigail’s legs and licking their hands enthusiastically. Yuri’s features softened in a way unfamiliar to the others as he leaned down to pet the dog.
“Is there any food by the desk?” Abigail warbled to Harry as she stroked the dog’s ears. Oddly enough, she seemed to have suddenly forgotten her obsessive cleanliness.
“Wait a minute, maybe I can find some dog food among the radiation suits,” Harry called back. Meanwhile, he had gotten to work on the other cupboards, opening them one by one to examine their contents.
“Radiation suits?” Yuri asked back.
“Yeah, weird, isn’t it?” Harry said, pulling one of the suits out of the cupboards. On the back was the same high-voltage symbol as on the overalls of the guards standing outside the door. Next to it was the symbol for radioactivity. In one of the lower cupboards, he actually found some cans of dog food and some bottles of water. A short time later, the dog ate enthusiastically from the floor and emptied its food bowl four times in a row, while Yuri kept filling it with water.
“I call him Anton,” Yuri announced with satisfaction as he opened another can and poured the contents on the floor for the dog. The dog seemed to understand, looked at Yuri, barked once and wagged his tail enthusiastically, then jumped on the next portion.
“You… you want to take the dog with you?” Harry asked, scratching the back of his head skeptically.
“We can’t leave Doggy-Anton behind! Look how cute he is,” Abigail purred again, stroking him as the ravenous animal gratefully ate his fill and maneuvered his flapping chaps across the concrete floor.
“Yeah, well, okay,” Harry said without objection. While he doubted it was a good idea to take an unknown dog out of the subway tunnels, he would have been outvoted now anyway. While the other two were still busy with the new team member, he finally flipped the switch on the decontamination chamber and the double doors slowly swung inwards. It was a small, square room with a few spray nozzles built into the walls. A grate drain was embedded in the floor. On the opposite side was another double door that could be opened from the inside with a switch. This second door was made mostly of thick bulletproof glass and looked out onto an illuminated corridor. Harry stopped and stared into the hallway.
“Guys… check this out,” he called to his comrades. Yuri and Abigail also entered the chamber, closely followed by Anton. The young woman held her breath when she saw what was behind the bulletproof glass door. In the neatly milled passageway, illuminated by white light, lay several dead crawlers and men in torn protective suits. Near the door, the tunnel walls were littered with blood splatters and bullet holes. Clearly, there had been a battle here as well.
“All right, say it,” Abigail whispered to Harry, pursing her lips.
“Say what? That we have to go in there if we want to know what’s really going on?” Harry replied dryly.
“Yeah,” Abigail nodded.
“Guys, we have to go in there if we want to know what’s really going on,” Harry sighed, carefully feeling his ribs. The painkiller was finally kicking in and the pain had subsided quite a bit. “Why do I even have to say this?”
“Because she doesn’t want to take blame if we get eaten by hellspawn later,” Yuri grinned and stomped towards the cupboards. “Hopefully there is suit in my size…”

The series continues with the title:
High Tension

Categorized as: Novel 3 (EN) | Novel Chapter (EN)

Comments are disabled on this post