Fallout - Welcome Home
#9 of Fallout
-NEW MESSAGE
-FROM: HQ
-TO: BRAVO
-SUBJECT: #1
Thank you. Remain in position and watch for others. Alert me of any changes.
-END MESSAGE
I pulled out my own flashlight and moved further into the subterranean structure. The extra illumination proved to be an unnecessary measure as overhead lights flickered on in each room we entered. The facility was massive, dug into the solid rock of the mountain and then reinforced with concrete and radiation shielding from its original purpose as a command center callable of surviving a direct nuclear strike. The main corridor we were traveling down was interspersed with reinforced bulkheads and massive doors, all which were luckily open. I examined one of them to find they were perfectly balanced and could be moved with a single claw.
We delved deeper into the bunker, exploring the rooms we passed along the way. All of them appeared to be emptied, stripped of anything important and left barren. There were signs of what they once had been though. There was an expansive command or security center where brackets to hold monitors and countless cable outlets dotted the walls, a mess hall and barracks for the numerous staff required to operate a place like this, and a room with a series of risers which must have been some sort of briefing chamber.
At the far end of the main passage, I discovered a pair of sealed blast doors. I searched for a way to open them, and upon finding an access panel and watching them slowly part, propelled by electric motors, let out a low whistle.
"What is it?" Jaimie asked.
I pointed to the room beyond. Her reaction was similar as her eyes took in the enormous space beyond the opening. I stepped through and gazed about. Hundreds of lights popped on revealing a full length runway built inside the mountain. There was a set of stairs to my right and I walked down them to the main floor of the airstrip, my mind refusing to accept the size and openness in an underground area. I examined the hanger doors. This had to be the cliff I had discovered on the outside.
We traversed the tarmac and found another set of blast doors on the far side of the expanse. Again, I opened these and moved through. The passages here seemed smaller, newer, and designed for a lower traffic capacity. The lights were brighter and more natural. The air tasted fresh and clear. For some reason, I felt at home here. The investigation continued through the new section. Everything on this side looked as if it had been built more for comfort and functionality rather than durability and was much more welcoming.
The rooms too appeared to have different functions. There was a former armory, lockers and weapon racks still lining the walls, a vast open space which still held a few structures from an obstacle course, a similar area where tracks for combat dummies ran across the floor, ceiling and walls, and an indoor firing range. I was rather interested in this feature. Brass still littered the back corners of the space. I scooped up a pawful of the spent rounds and examined them. There were small, 9mm casings and some longer than my finger as well as everything in between. The lanes were staggered in distance and I stared in awe at the one on the far side which's length could easily have been over two kilometers.
The differences in these spaces didn't end with their design or function. They also appeared to have been cleared much quicker and less thoroughly. A set of dumbbells was left in the weight room and the small mess hall still contained a long table and chairs.
I approached a final door and entered the room it accessed, Jaimie behind me. What was beyond the entrance completely took me by surprise. A ring of couches still sat in the middle of the space. There was evidence that other furniture had also occupied the area from the depressions left in the carpet. There was another difference. This was the only room so far to have any floor material other than cement. Five doors were spaced along the wall across from where I stood.
I approached the one on the left. It, like the others, bore a small plastic name plate. This one read WO1 Jessica Curry. I walked down the line examining each door. The next one belonged to WO1 William Trestan. Below the card, someone had caved the words "the one who can fly" into the wood. Adjacent to this, a door bore the name of WO1 Chris Thomas. Between the first and last name, an arrow had been drawn in permanent marker and someone had written "TANK". The fourth door, like the first, only held the plastic identification with WO1 Teague Simmons. Each name matched one of those listed as dead cadets in the news paper article which had begun this half baked quest.
As I moved in front of the final door, the headache I had begun to develop became more painful. It felt as if my head were storing too much pressure and needed to be released. I gritted my teeth against the pain continued my examination. The placard here read CW2 Kirian Harper. Below this, a sheet of paper had been attached by a clear strip of tape, which was beginning to fail. I carefully removed it from the wood and peered at its contents. Upon the paper, someone, me I realized, had written a list of data, or something. The Each line contained a pair of dimensions followed by a third number. The first on read "7.62x51mm - 1,206.06m." Each entry was crossed out except for the one at the bottom. "8.72x107mm - 2,912.9m"
This was all gibberish to me, but I carefully folded the paper and slipped it into the loose pocket of my pants. This small curiosity set aside I opened the door before me. It accessed a small room. To the right was a lofted bed beneath which sat a desk and chair. A dresser/closet combination occupied the space directly across the room and a small bathroom lay to the left. As I stepped inside to examine the space closer, my headache returned tenfold. The pressure was so great that it began to blur my vision. I had just enough consciousness to wave Jaimie away before blacking out.
I had no idea how long I was there, but eventually I awoke to find myself sprawled on the floor, Jaimie's paw gently stroking my ear. I twitched my tail and blinked open my eyes to see her familiar face, a worried expression etched on its features. Slowly, I climbed to my feet and leaned against the wall for support.
"Are you okay?" Jaimie asked, the concern coloring her words.
"I'm fine, I just... I need some time alone I think."
She nodded and left the room. I placed my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. Everything had come back to me. It was if the trickles of thought and memory I had witnessed before were a leak in a dam which had just burst, flooding my mind and body with memory, feelings, thoughts, and knowledge. I sat at the desk chair and examined the individual I had become, no, the individual I had re-become.
I was Kirian Harper, a chief warrant officer in the Jardine military, leader of the deadliest, and youngest, killing force the modern world had ever witnessed. At least, that's who I had been. But something had gone wrong. We were supposed to have gone on a mission. The General was briefing us, and then Jaimie was finding me in the mountains. What had happened? Where were the others? What life did I lead now?
I didn't have the answer to any of these questions. I stood and left my room, taking time to explore the others before leaving. Jaimie was nowhere around so I left the living quarters and wandered through the now familiar corridors and passages of Training Center 17. I eventually found myself at the entrance to the outdoor drill grounds and exited the substructure the way we had entered. My feet continued to move of their own accord, following some familiar path, and I ended up standing atop one of the lower peaks which shielded the massive facility.
The sky was black, speckled with countless stars, appearing close enough to touch. The new moon cast no light upon my surroundings. Somehow the night sky had always intrigued me and calmed me, and it did again as I stood here gazing into its endless deaths. I sat upon a rock, the stone still warm from having been beaten on by solar radiation all day. At my feet a single flower grew in a small patch of grass. It's peddles were open, deep black and dotted with white pinpricks. A memory flashed through my head, the feeling of a girl's lips against mine, the sky dark, these flowers surrounding us, and her bright red hair flowing through my finger tips.
I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Jaimie picking her way up the slope to join me. I got up and helped her the last few feet of steep terrain. She stood by my side, silently holding my hand, staring at the stars. We remained there for ten minutes, not speaking a work until I broke the silence.
"It all came back. Everything. Who I was, who I am, what I did."
"And?"
I told Jaimie everything, for the most part. I left out details for the sake of brevity, but I tried to put all of my new found knowledge into what I said. I tried to make her understand who I was, what I was. I could not allow Jaimie to continue with me if she did not completely understand the danger which my presence placed her in, or the events which were guaranteed to take place in the future.
"So what happens now?" she finally asked, as my story came to an end.
"Now that you know who I am, do you still want to continue with me?"
"Xavier, who you are hasn't changed, even if what you know has. I said from the beginning I'm going to stick with you, no matter what."
"Well, like you once told me, I'm not the kind of person to back down from a challenge, nor will I do anything worth doing half way. There are four of my squad mates out there who have been treated the same as me, probably are facing the same challenges I was, and who are defiantly in the same danger, even if they don't know it yet. Our first step needs to be to find them, and let them know. I'd like to get everyone back together, if only for the sake of friends, but I won't force anyone to join me."
"Do you know how to find them?"
"No, but I can find someone who does. Let's get some sleep. We leave at 0400."
We chose to bunk in the old squad quarters. I lay awake in my bed staring at the ceiling. Somewhere, my squad was out there. Jessica, Teague, Tank, Will... Alone, lost, and confused. A condition no member of the Special Assignments Team should ever endure. It was our duty to watch each other's back, and our mission to help each other survive. These I would fulfill before moving on to our purpose. To kill swiftly and silently, as a team, leaving no trace of our presence, no whiteness of our act, and no threats to our country. As I began to ponder how to rescue my team, an old porcupine's words rang through my head.
"I guess I'd do some research on defense contractors, they always have a paw in these things."
This paired with my newly acquired knowledge made my next move clear. It was time to pay the good doctor a visit.