CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel (23 page)

Antarctic
Research Center

Stephen and Stella
took advantage of the distractions to finally investigate some of the
information, mostly blueprints, Marco sent them from the Noah folder. He and
Alexis were able to open a few files which he sent in chunks – just bits and
pieces of a larger puzzle.

Most
of what they’d been able to open included the layout and design of the ARC. Having
those files opened meant that they could feed their curiosity and explore.
Stephen synced all the data he had from Marco to his tablet as he and Stella
set out again.

Today
was day two of Stephen and Stella’s exploring the ARC using the blueprints. The
first day hadn’t shown them anything new or exciting. The level one details
were mostly the areas Stephen and Stella had lived with and in since they could
remember. It also had the special safe room their parents had shown them a few
years before. 

The
fact that food and supplies were stored in those first areas made sense given
the ARC’s remote location. If for any reason no one could get to them, at least
they wouldn’t starve. None of this was new and it felt like a wasted day,
except for the nature of the requirements to access the blueprints.

Today
they were going to the next layer of the blueprints. The blueprint program
required that certain locations be accessed in the building before being
allowed to continue. It was like an additional level of security so that
someone following it couldn’t just go for the food or supplies or whatever else
the mammoth ARC held.

Stella
sent Zura a quick note saying they were fine and would stay out of the way
since they had all the meetings. 

Zura
quickly shot a message back. “OK. Thanks.” Stella knew her mom was under more
stress than usual. She continually heard her thinking how happy she’d be when
it was all over and they were packing up and getting on that transport carrier
back home. Of all the years they’d spent here, this had been the hardest for
her mom’s team.

Stephen
and Stella got their ARC issued emergency light caps and flashlights and headed
through the living areas of their family unit to the main area of their
honeycomb. The green light flashed on the blueprint as they walked. They’d
covered a good part of the honeycomb structures and had skipped the science center
section, for the most part.

Just
the day before, as they started exploring, Stephen tucked the tablet in his
pocket and walked in during the morning’s activities to say hi and let it
register that he’d met that location requirement. They would go the other way
today. The ARC was much larger than either of them had imagined and the
blueprint showed at least three levels just like they thought they saw before. 

The
three levels seemed to nearly mirror each other in size, but the sections
varied with the second level having large sections that Stephen reasoned must
be the warehouse and storage areas. Only exploration would tell.

“Here
we go,” said Stella as they went through a door leading, eventually to the
warehouse area. She laughed nervously, “We would get in so much trouble if our
parents found out what we were doing.” She thought of how gutsy Alexis had been
back at camp. She wished she had half of that courage.

The
twins walked more than a hundred yards through a winding dark hallway too
narrow to move shoulder to shoulder. Stephen took the lead. The only guidance
they had was the blueprint, which they followed as they wove beyond their
normal allowable range.

The
only sounds were the faint humming of a motor or engine running and the
occasional sound of gurgling water. The air felt strangely dry though the
temperature seemed to be extremely well controlled. The temperature reading on
Stephen’s watch hadn’t changed since leaving the main level.
Good insulation
,
thought Stephen
.

They
continued walking slowly, allowing the light from their hats to go ahead of
them. A few more turns and they finally made it to a door on the blueprint that
simply read WS1. To the right of the door was a scanner. The door would require
official identification to be opened. 

Stephen
held his hand up and Stella knocked it back down. “Are you crazy?” she said
furiously. “If you scan yourself it’s going to be recorded that you scanned in
here. We’ll have to try to get in another way, if we have time.”

They
continued down the hall passing more doors marked with WS and then numbers.

“I
would say that WS is for warehouse storage?” Stephen reasoned.

“Makes
sense to me. There are a lot of them. At least we won’t go hungry,” Stella
shrugged. Of course, the idea of stored food wasn’t really appealing. “Probably
dehydrated everything. Yuck.”

As
they left the honeycomb section marked by WS doors they headed down a short
hallway and entered into another section. This one had doors marked with an S
and a number only.

“I
wonder what these are?” Stephen wondered aloud to Stella.

“Maybe
more storage?” Stella wasn’t seeing anything exciting and boredom was beginning
to creep in. “So we are just walking around storage and more storage. Maybe
this is like a special storage center in case there is a major food crisis.
They figure it won’t get damaged down here in no man’s land. Do you want to
look at anything else? Something that’s maybe actually interesting?” Stella
said turning to Stephen with a look of boredom. 

“Yes,
we don’t have much time before we go home and I know there is something here.
Otherwise, why would anyone keep it all under such high security?” Stephen answered
unwilling to stop.

The
faint lighting cast shadows from their bodies along the ground as they walked. Her
eyes followed the shadows for a moment, as she let herself get distracted by
the distortion of their appearance from the overhead light. Their elongated
legs and short torsos put her in mind of something alien. Then she thought of
what Canson Pritchard had said about their being made. She didn’t want to think
about that now. Hopefully, they could ask Mave about that strange conversation soon
and get answers.

Periodically,
one of them would try a door, hoping that perhaps it would open. Every door was
secure, as it should have been. Neither Stella nor Stephen would be able to get
into anything useful or interesting down here. At least not without the right
access, but that wouldn’t stop Stephen. 

Stella
came to a sudden stop. “What was that?” she asked.

“What
was what?” Stephen asked back. He hadn’t heard anything. 

“That
sound. Come on - this way.” Stella grabbed the tablet from him and was now
leading them down the narrow hallway, slowly; listening for the strange noise
she’d heard. “There it goes again,” she whispered.

“I
heard it but I think it’s just the normal sound of something as big as this,”
Stephen said. Her ears had always been much better than his.

“I
don’t think so. It sounded like groaning,” she said.

Stephen
raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Let’s keep moving.” Stephen took the tablet
back from her.

“I
want to get to this section on the blueprint today before we go back so that
tomorrow we can start on the next level. We’ve only hit two of the four required
locations to gain access to the next level.” They continued to walk but Stella
was sure what she heard wasn’t just the sounds of the ARC.

“What
do you think we might find, Stephen?” she pondered. She needed to do whatever
she could to stay interested. 

“I
don’t know. I am hopeful that we’ll find something to help us figure out what
is really going on. Something to answer the question of why the World Consensus
and UniCorps don’t want to do everything possible to warn people,” he said
seriously.

“Even
if we do find that, what are we going to do with it? We can’t tell anyone.
Everything here is top secret. Even we are sworn to secrecy. We could be tried
for treason. Well, I guess if we find it now and say something we wouldn’t be
tried for treason but we’d be sent away for reconditioning. I don’t really want
to be sent away for my sixteenth birthday Stephen. I don’t want to be sent away
at all. Especially since they keep you until
they
think you are ready to
rejoin society,” she said worried.

“Why
the sudden change in your behavior Stella?” Stephen stopped walking to ask her. 

She
looked at him. She was the big sister by a matter of just six minutes. “I don’t
want us to screw up our lives, okay? And for what? Something that won’t make a
difference anyway?” she answered. 

She’d
always been there to protect him and look out for him and now she was letting
them do this, risking their freedom. She didn’t want to wind up homeless.
That’s what happened to para-adults who didn’t successfully receive reconditioning
and the behavior modification programming by the time they reached adulthood at
twenty-one. Their lives would be ruined.

“I
think we should go back. Maybe the meeting will go better than we expected and
there will be nothing to worry about. Maybe they’ll agree to prepare for
evacuation and warn people,” she said grasping for her usual optimism. “Mom and
Mave can be pretty persuasive,” she said with hope, trying to convince Stephen
and herself. 

“Based
on the past behaviors of the World Consensus and UniCorps, the probability of
that happening is about .28. In case you are wondering, yes that is too low for
comfort,” he said smartly. “We have to continue.” He added what little bit of
bass he had to his voice.

Stella
sighed with frustration. She was torn and confused, and he hadn’t helped. She
followed Stephen to the next location spot. It was in a section with doors
marked RS. He allowed the geo-locator to mark that they’d made it to that
location and then he kept moving.

“It’s
hard to judge from these blueprints, but we probably have another quarter mile
to walk to get to the last location,” he said. 

Stella
sighed heavily this time, trying to get his attention. He missed her cue,
forcing her to be more direct.

“This
is pointless Stephen. I hope that what Marco sends us next has some real clues
that don’t require walking in honeycomb circles for hours.”

Stephen
kept walking, ignoring her comments. Moments later he heard it. It was the unmistakable
sound of groaning.

“You
had to have heard that!” Stella said in an excited whisper. 

“I
did. What is it?” he asked her nervously, looking around for the source of the
strange sound. 

“Heck
if I know! But that’s what I want to find out. Let’s check that out now, then
we’ll do the last location.”

Stella
started walking at a near gallop towards the direction of the strange sounds. The
groaning faded in and out and sometimes sounded more like moaning. She barely
looked back at Stephen to make sure he was keeping up with her pace. Something
exciting was finally happening and she didn’t want to miss it.

“Slow
down, Stella. I’m trying to follow this blueprint and need to make sure we
don’t miss one of the required locations.” At this point Stella didn’t care
about the blueprint. Her curiosity had been peaked and she was going to follow
it before she got scared. 

“Hurry
up. We don’t have much time and I’m starting to get hungry. It must be almost
lunch. They’ll probably take a break and someone will come to check on us. If
we want to check it out, you need to put that thing away.” Stella stopped to
say the last part to his face, just so he’d understand the importance, before
turning back around and continuing at the same pace.

“It’s
getting louder,” Stephen said. 

“Yeah.
I think we must be close. I thought this thing was built just before we were
born. It must have some old systems to make this much noise,” Stella said as
she listened to the odd sounds.

“I
wonder if we are coming up on the central power source or something,” Stephen
said curiously. “That would be nice to see. I can’t imagine what it must look
like to keep something like this powered independently. It is its own power
source for sure,” Stephen added matter-of-factly.

As
they approached another door marked RS11, Stella slowed down. The sounds seemed
to be coming from there. It was another door with the security panel, just like
all the others they’d come across. She gently pushed on the door,
optimistically.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll open.
But there was no
budging. 

“I
think it’s in here. Remember this door, Stephen. When we get back down
tomorrow, we’re coming straight here.”

She
pressed her ear to the door and heard the groaning again and in the distance it
sounded like something scraping against concrete. 

“The
whole system must be through here. It’s strange to put it down here, but I
guess they don’t want people accidentally messing with it,” she said.

Stephen
looked at the door and at the blueprint. It didn’t make sense that the central
power system would be there.