CHAPTER 34
There was no one around,and Fee was really glad because she didn’t know which way to go.
She felt turned around in here. She tried to remember where everything had been last time, but the Balcoans had made some major changes, probably working with whatever was left.
What she did know was that she had to go down.
Bart had said the lower two floors had survived the laser strike, and there was a way out from the lowest floor. She and Hal had broken into and out of this base using the air flow tunnel.
If she could find it and it wasn’t blocked off, she’d be out of here.
What she’d do once she was out was another matter. She had no water, and no way to travel except by foot.
The alternative was to try to sneak across the amphitheater, climb the stairs, and steal a runner, and she didn’t think she’d get away with doing that unseen. Besides which she didn’t know how to fly a runner, and while Bunny was useful, she didn’t think he was able to pilot a vessel.
The tunnel seemed like the most viable option.
She headed away from the main entrance, following the curve around. This had to be the living quarters, because she passed door after door.
Eventually she reached the end of the built in rooms, where the corridor widened to the full width of the space like it had at the entrance, except for one small room against the back wall.
Fee opened the door, and felt a wave of relief when she found what she was looking for.
A stairwell.
That they had sealed the stairs off, when theoretically they could have let it open straight out into the corridor was informative.
Like maybe they were trying to stop things coming up from below. Like friens.
She and Hal had found evidence of frien burrows in the air flow tunnel last time. It sounded like they were still very much an issue here.
What had Bart’s friend said? They went through anti venom like water.
Bunny was riding her shoulder, and she twisted her head to look at him. “I’m counting on you to protect me from friens, big and small. I don’t think the anti venom works on me, and even if it does, I don’t have any.”
She closed the stairwell door behind her and went down the stairs cautiously.
These seemed new, or newly recoated.
When she reached the floor below, she opened the stairwell door cautiously, and then crouched in surprise, watching through a tiny gap.
This floor was the storage area.
There were massive sheets of metal, pipes, and cable, all lined up neatly. It made no sense they would be transported up to the amphitheater via the stairs—they were too narrow—so itcame as no surprise when sunlight suddenly flooded the gloom as a part of the ceiling seemed to lower down, and four workers stepped off what was clearly some kind of massive, open-sided elevator. The workers headed for a pile of pipes and began loading carts she’d only just noticed.
From her angle, crouched low to the ground, Fee could see the frame of the Class 5 in the open area above.
She closed the door silently and backed away, then started down the next set of stairs.
If things were as she remembered, the bottom floor contained the systems that kept the base powered and the air fresh.
She hadn’t heard any signs of life so far, but she was very cautious as she pushed open the door at the bottom. The stairs went no further, at least, not from this staircase, and Fee guessed she’d reached the lowest level.
She stepped into warm air that hummed with the sound of machinery and cooling units.
There was a quick-set layer on the floor, rather than a solid foundation, and even that, if she remembered correctly, was a step up from what it had been before, which was nothing but desert sand.
The quick-set had been sprayed on, and there were patches where they’d either missed a spot, or where the layer had crumbled away, and the sound as she walked forward was almost like walking through hard-packed snow. Slightly squeaky.
