Gehenna (Part Four)

I came into a place void of all light,
which bellows like the sea in tempest,
when it is combated by warring winds.
- Dante, Inferno, Canto V, lines 28-30

Water fell like rain.



Whether it was leaking from broken pipes or represented a massive condensation problem, I could not tell. Perhaps this was water draining from the laboratories upstairs, with their putrid contents….

I will never feel clean again.



Weapon drawn, I trudged through the utility tunnels, splashing through the water pooled upon the ground.  The lights mounted on the walls were ineffective, so I had to rely again on my flashlight.

Where were the rats?

Groans and gurgles echoed throughout the tunnels but I could not place the source of the sound.



I climbed up onto the pipes that ran suspended from the ceiling. There was some degree of relief from the dripping of water, otherwise I had no illusions.



There was no refuge in this place.

----

I pushed open a metal floor grate and climbed out into a dark hallway.

I was again among a suite of laboratories, divided by intersecting corridors, like those on Level One. Given that I had not climbed stairs to reach here, I judged that I was still in a basement level of some sort, likely on the same elevation as Dining Hall B.



The lights were completely out in this wing and the rooms were completely flooded. In several places, thin streams of water leaked forcefully through chips in the reinforced glass.

Examination of the damage revealed that each break was a percussion cone fracture with the larger mouth of the funnel on the outside of the room. This meant the force of impact was coming from inside the laboratory.  Someone inside the flooded chamber had tried to break the glass by repeatedly striking the window. He or she had used a pick, or more likely the pick shaped poll on a fire axe, and probably did so as the water was rising.

I could start to piece together the story of what may have happened here.



I had found evidence of two mechanical failures that had resulted in deaths of three or more people – the robot arm in sterile packaging, and the flooding of the laboratories on two separate levels.   If these events were concurrent, that could indicate a system wide malfunction.

The two women on Level One who appear to have drowned as a result have now reanimated. Whether these creatures were ever clinically dead or were somehow caught at the very moment of expiration I had no way of knowing. Other former employees of the facility appear to be in the same state though I had not ascertained the cause of death in each case.

One could posit that exposure to an unknown agent produced these effects, though I do not know the nature of this substance, the means by which it was delivered, nor the time lines involved. I also do not know if exposure had been accidental or deliberate. Exposure may have been a result of the systems failure or may have predated the malfunction.




---



The sign read 'Laboratories' as if everything up to now had been practice. It pointed down the hall to the right. I followed the arrow and came to a window overlooking a dark room. The windows were reinforced with wire.



This was new.



The door slid upwards with a hiss. The room was uncomfortably cold.




Inside were eight tubes, each the size of an adult, each filled with a luminous pale blue substance. They were arranged in three rows. A ninth tube at the middle of the back row was broken. The same blue substance collected in a thick cloud upon the floor, preventing me from inspecting the intact tubes.



Off to one side, there was another workstation.  The files were still active.



My clothes were damp from the water in the utility tunnels.  I began to shiver as I attached my device to the computer to clone the hard disk. The absurd notion crossed my mind that I might catch a chill, as if that was the worst thing that could happen to me here.

My thoughts were interrupted by the device signaling that the copying process was now complete. Thankfully, I removed the device and replaced it my jacket pocket.

Avoiding the cloud on the floor, I moved towards the back of the room to have a quick look at the broken tube. It had been shattered leaving only the support base and some broken glass. Nearby, a large fan blade snapped off its mounting lay on the floor. It left a hole wide enough that I could step through without trouble.



What manner of being could do such a thing?



Cautiously, I climbed through the opening to the space beyond. My flashlight came to rest upon a maintenance ladder stretching upwards. I took hold of the rungs and began to climb.

---

The path of life is upwards for the wise,
that he may depart from Sheol beneath.
Proverbs 15:24



As I climbed, the floor beneath me disappeared into the blackness.  I pushed aside the fear that something could drop onto me while I was on the ladder.

Darkness above.
Darkness below.

I did not know where I was heading, only that I was going in the right direction.



“Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,”
The Master said, panting as one fatigued,
“Must we perforce depart from so much evil.”
- Dante, Inferno, Canto XXXIV

---

After an eternity of climbing - changing ladders a number of times - I came to a small windowless room with a door on one wall. I shone my flashlight across the surface of the floor, looking for marks in the dust and grime. The results were inconclusive.



The door was unlocked.



It opened to a dark tunnel with train tracks.



I had come full circle. I was back on Level Four.

Entering the area from a different angle I now had the advantage. Using the train as cover, I cleared the platform before rushing forward to the first set of blast doors of my return journey.




The warehouse and show laboratory still lay ahead.  I had a good sense of the terrain and expected some resistance.

I was very low on ammunition but I used what I had to good effect.




Throughout the facility, I had found signs of violence.  The afflicted did not attack each other.  This suggested that not everyone in the facility had been exposed to the substance or the material had not been uniform in its effects.



While not excluding this, it was also possible others had entered the facility. Bullet casings in the stairwell suggested security personnel involvement.



One question still burned in my mind: if others had passed through this facility before me, had containment been preserved?