28

He was finally inside the bunkers and that was when he realised that it was bigger than he could have expected and there were many rooms there. He figured that it was like a small skyscraper but built downwards instead of upwards.
He wondered how he was to know which room belonged to him and he came up with a plan.
He sneezed loudly and swayed.
“Oh, Bluecomb, are you okay?” One of the soldiers coming from the duty with him asked.
“No. I… I… Can’t walk,” he said weakly still pretending to be sick.
“Okay, let me take you to our room then. I will help steady you,” the soldier said and Richard thought ‘fuck!’
He hadn’t banked on the fact that they were sharing rooms. But that wouldn’t be an hindrance at all. He was going to work around it.
They walked slowly and then came to a lift. They took the lift and it had no numbers on it. The man who seems to be this leader produced a card from his inner jacket and put it on a slot on the inside of the elevator and it clicked and started moving.
Richard knew then that this machine was card operated. It was the serial number on the card that determined the floor to be taken to.
But from his knowledge and experience, after counting the seconds, he could tell that they had gone six floors down.
After that, the elevator opened and they came to a corridor. It had rows and rows of rooms on either side and he discovered that this is what the man meant by “our” rooms.
They each had a single bunk and that was hard enough.
“Hey, Bluecomb, where is your card?” The man holding onto him asked and Richard fumbled with his inner pockets and found it.
He pretended that his hands were weak and the card fell. The man bent and picked it and opened a door.
“Do you want me to take you inside?” The man asked.
“No. I just want to sleep. I will see you later,” he said as he staggered to the room holding onto the walls. “Thank you man,” he said as he turned to close the door.
“No problem. Do you want me to talk to the captain for you. You look like you can use a day off,” the man said and Richard coughed to his sleeve.
“Can you do that? I will really appreciate,” he said and smiled to the other man who patted his shoulder and smiled assuring him that he will talk to their boss.
After Richard was left alone, he walked into the room and shed the clothes he was wearing. He was hiding his bag underneath and he was lucky that the people he came in with didn’t notice any difference.
The room was small. A ten by ten feet with a single bed, a small bathroom on the side separated by a screen rather than a door, a small closet and that was all.
The man had a few novels on a side table and Richard started going through his things.
“Jesus Maria Sanchez. Twenty eight years old. From Cruz Perez northern of the country.”
At least he had a name but the problem was that he hadn’t seen the man’s face and he thus didn’t know what the man looked like for a disguise.
This meant one thing. He had to look for the general and get out of here before they found out that the real Jesus Maria was dead.
He thus took a quick bath and changed into his own comfortable clothes but put the others that belonged to Jesus Maria on top for his disguise. He then put on the mask and took the card. He hoped that the card could take him somewhere where he could find any useful information.
He sneaked out and after making sure that there was no one in the corridors or any sounds, he walked slowly towards the elevator. As he had suspected this card was useless. It couldn’t open the elevator doors.
He then looked around and saw a sign on the side wall written ‘stairs’. He hadn’t noticed a door that looked like a wall because he hadn’t been looking.
He walked towards that side and he sighed with relief when he realised that the card opened the door. He took the stairs and realised that there were those going up and those going down. He deduced that if they were to hold prisoners here, then if it were him the prisoners would be downstairs.
Richard went down stairs as he took a peek in every floor and what he saw broke him. He didn’t realise that Antonio or whoever it was he was working with was this evil.
There were hundreds and hundreds of prisoners and many of them looked like skeletons. It was like they weren’t being fed and if they were it was once in a while just to keep them barely alive.
He walked looking around until he came to quiet floor that didn’t have the groans of prisoners and this seemed to be clean and it had a guard at the end of the corridor.
What he had realised was that many of the upper floors where the prisoners were weren’t guarded because who would come and even if a prisoner decided to escape, where would they go?
“Hey? The shift is over already? Good. I’m tired. See you again,” the masked man said when he saw Richard.
Richard figured that it made sense because who would except someoje from the outside to come here? No one. They thought they were very secure.
He gave Richard a card and said, “today it’s Doctor Lee on duty. Open for him when he returns. He said he has gone for a smoke.” Richard took the card with a nod and then man left.
After Richard was sure that the man had left he went to the elevator and jammed a paper on the door to make sure that it wouldn’t open unless he removes the paper from the outside. He did the same to the doors to the stairs and then came back.
He swiped the card and the the only door on that floor opened.
Richard wasn’t prepared for what he saw. There, before his eyes, we’re rows and rows of tanks with a strange clear liquid inside. Inside the tanks were people.
He walked as he checked and he realised that the people were alive because they were breathing. He wondered how they could breath in that liquid and he stood before one tank to scrutinise.
The man inside opened his eyes and bared his teeth and groaned. The groan was like that of a wolf.
Richard opened an adjacent door from the inside and he saw a machine. The machine was alive and it was running.
There was a table in the middle of the room and there was a man lying on the table. There were tubes all over his body and some of the tubed seemed to be dripping a liquid that he could not tell what it was to the man’s veins since it was connected to a vein on his neck.
Richard walked towards the man and that was when he realised who it was: the General.
He was unconscious and Richard didn’t know what it was that were doing to him but first thing first. He looked around and saw where the machine was plugged. He switched it off and everything, including the tanks went quiet.
He then removed the tuned connected to the general very quickly and took the man. He drag-carried him and got out of the room.
That was when realized that the people in the other machines had stopped breathing but that wasn’t his concern. Whatever it was they were doing to those people, it was better off if they were dead.
He took out the papers he had used to jam the elevator and the stairs and he took the stairs with the general and he knew he could not get out of there that night.
He, with difficulty, dragged the man to his, no to Jose’s, bunker and he closed the door.
He had nothing to do than wait for the general to wake up and tell him what was happening and what that machine was.
He laid the general on the small bed and he sat on the floor.
He hadn’t even sat for two minutes when he heard an alarm go off. He straightened his clothes and hid the general under the small bed and then walked out remembering that he was sick.
He staggered to his door and the other soldiers were already out on their doors too. He stood on attention like the rest but he was swaying.
“There has been a breach in the ground floor and we have to find who is responsible. A specimen has escaped and he is believed to be the cause of the breach.
Everyone scatter and go look for him. Maria Flores, Virgo and Sanchez, first floor. Diego, Pele and Ronaldo, second floor. Bruce, Alejandro and Parker, third floor. Baron, Harrison and Perez, fifth floor.
I don’t think he could be here obviously because we are here and we would have seen him.
Seventh floor…,” the man continued dividing them into groups of three and he finished without mentioning Jesus Maria (who was currently Richard).
Richard raised his hand and the captain bellowed, “Jesus, back to your room. Don’t spread that flu around. We can’t afford to have more soldiers down.”
“Yes, sir,” Jesus said in a weak voice and went back to his room. He could hear as the other soldiers moved around and he felt a stir under the bed. He checked and realised that the General was stirring.
He pulled the body bag he and used to hide the general in and when the General saw the light, he blinked and then stood up so fast that Richard wasn’t prepared for that since the man had been unconscious.
But years of training and service had taught him to adapt and within a minute he was also on his feet.
The general took a fighting stance while looking at Richard warily as he shook his head.