Forsaken: The Journey Home by Lily Lancaster

Author:Lily Lancaster [Lancaster, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-24T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23 - Facilitating the Mystery

At the door, Tina stooped down and found a couple of large rocks among the general debris. “Step one.” She tossed one of them through the open door. Nothing happened. “No doom lasers, that’s a good start.”

With Charlotte sticking close, Tina stepped over the boundary and slid around the partially open door, awkwardly shining the torch before her. Beyond the skeletons on the floor there was nothing all that remarkable, just a slightly larger room with three other passages radiating off; one ahead, one to either side.

The door ahead was also ajar, so Tina moved inside with Charlotte, noting the atmosphere in here was… less than fresh. Hardly surprising, given they were underground and this place had clearly been abandoned for a long time, but even then there was something oppressive about the air in here.

“Guess we go forward?” Charlotte said, pointing to the door there.

“Looks like it,” Tina said, leading the way. Peering through the crack, she could make out a much larger room beyond with vague suggestions of furniture here and there. The whole space was lit in a dim red light which did nothing to help them see, but did a very good job of making everything look unwelcoming.

“Here, give me a hand to get this open,” Tina added, grasping the heavy-duty door in both hands.

“S-Sure,” Charlotte murmured.

“Scared of the dark?” Tina asked, pausing for a moment to grasp Charlotte’s hand and squeeze.

“No, scared of this place. The station I live on is basically always light, but even when it’s not, I can turn the lights on if I need to. This place is… different. I don’t like it,” Charlotte said, taking Tina’s hand as though it were a lifeline.

“Why did you come along, then?”

“Because you’re here!” Charlotte said in taught tone of voice.

“In that case, let’s get this door open, shall we? The sooner we check this place out, the sooner we can relax,” Tina said, giving her a tender peck on the lips, almost as insurance.

Taking a deep breath as her stomach performed cartwheels of nervous terror, Charlotte grabbed the end of the door with Tina and, with much grunting and gasping, managed to drag it across enough to admit entry, the metal scraping and protesting every inch it was forced to move.

Now she could squeeze through into the room beyond, Tina scanned the area with the torch. The furniture turned out to be heavy-duty metal shelves and tables laden with a variety of tools and protective equipment.

As Charlotte arrived, the dim red lighting faded to a milder tone and a hidden speaker embedded somewhere in a wall or the ceiling announced itself in a calm female voice.

“CDNA detected, lifting lockdown and exiting low-power state.”

“What the hell?” Charlotte said, looking around frantically as the low-level right light was replaced with a much more welcoming off-white illuminating the room fully.

“Some sort of automated system?” Tina said. “Must’ve detected us moving around in here.”

“Welcome, worker,” the voice continued in the same calm tone.

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