Overrun: Project Hideaway (6 page)

The sight froze her there. Even
with the flames reaching closer and dome troops now running through the
corridors, she found it impossible to move.

Several large fires ate up the
corridor and scorched the metal on the ceilings. Rone still stood there. A
streaking light whooshed behind her back. An explosion soon followed knocking
Korcheck hard to the elevator floor.

Dr. Katie Rone, head research
scientist of the Hideaway Project crew, however continued to stand. Debris
showered her catatonic figure while dome troops rushed behind her with their
weapons drawn. They ran around and next to her, some losing their balance and
toppling to the ground as the facility shook from additional outside weapons
blasts.

A couple of them knocked hard
into her, but she still did not move.

Korcheck's eyes pleaded for her
to act. Their quiet petition and his outstretched hand finally convinced her
body to comply. She took a step closer and allowed him to reach out and gently
pull her in.

Another explosion blasted
outside the door shaking the compartment. The door whisked shut for the moment
blocking everything out. And then the elevator dropped swiftly beneath their
feet.

"We have to get to the lab
testing area," Korcheck said letting go of her arm. She retreated away
from him and pressed her back against the far side of the descending cabin. Her
eyes focused above the door on the digital readout tracking their rapid descent
deep into the earth. "We can hook up to the ship down there. We made it
possible a long time ago, probably only a few years after I got here, in the
unlikely event the dome command centers were ever discovered or
destroyed."

Only the hum of the moving
elevator filled the room.

"In the unlikely event of
today?" she asked slowly turning to face him.

"I never considered a day
like today to be unlikely," he said grimly. “It’s always been in the back
of my head, and I’ve always planned for it.”

A large blast rocked the
speeding elevator knocking it against the side of the metal shaft. Korcheck
flew through the air and crashed into Rone. Both scientists sprawled dazedly in
a heap across the floor. The lights in the cabin blinked out.

They remained there on the
ground, together on top of each other, until the elevator finally came to a
halt. For the moment, the explosions above seemed far off in the distance.

The doors opened allowing light
again into the confined space of the cabin. The staleness of the filtered
underground air quickly followed.

Rone found herself lying on
Korcheck's chest and staring into his bloody face. His eyes were relaxed and
serene while hers were wide open with apprehension and fright. A dimple on his
left cheek twitched slightly. She could feel the heat of his breath fall gently
across her face.

"Let's go," he said
solemnly while standing and pulling her to her feet. "If I'm right, we
don't have much time."

They left the elevator, and she
followed him into the vast open area of the dome science research facility many
miles beneath the surface of the sun-scarred earth.

The shock of everything
happening around her had started to take leave of her senses. Feeling was
returning to her body, and her mind began to again produce rational, as far as
she could tell, productive thought. She tried to put her fear away, or at least
hold it off until when it could be justified.

Korcheck ran ahead of her
towards a series of gigantic clear cylindrical towers that stretched to the far
reaches of the facility’s rock-lined ceiling. The mammoth bases of these
structures surrounded a computer command area. The towers rose more than two
stories into the mass emptiness of the underground cavern in which they now
stepped. The structures lined the underground cavern by the thousands and stood
enveloped in silence by the stale still air.

The battle being waged on the
dome above had not yet reached this far deep into the ground.

"Water," Korcheck
yelled over his shoulder noticing her gaping up at their size. His voice rang
out in the loneliness of the mammoth open room.

Korcheck ran toward the command
center. Rone followed after him doing her best not to fall too far behind.

“Lots and lots of water,” he
said stepping onto the command center platform. “To insulate the lab against
the surrounding rock. The sun pounds hard on the ground above, and the ground
heats up pretty far deep.”

“All this for….?” Rone started
to question.

"It’s also enough for a
small army’s lifetime,” Korcheck interrupted her. “In case the scientific team,
my scientific team, ever needed to hole up down here. A contingency in case of
attack. Before the Hideaway project. When the beam cannon prototypes were kept
down here. All underground. Before the dome was built and anyone really knew we
were here."

A deep rumble disturbed the
quiet tranquility of the room.

Rocks and other debris began to
drop into the elevator shaft from overhead and slam down across the metallic
cabin at its bottom. Rubble spilled into the underground cavern. Whole sides of
the cavern shook around them, and a fog of dust spewed into the room.

Korcheck moved quickly along the
platform punching hard at keyboards and switches along its control panels. The
command center consoles breathed to life and came online after he ran past. He
leapt three steps to another platform level in front of the tallest computer
tower and slammed the main activation switch with the base of his arm. Lights
along the entire command center main platform flared instantly on.

Another explosion rocked the air
above. The sound this time was much closer making the underground hideaway no
longer seem as faraway and safe.

Heavier pieces of metal and some
larger beams slammed down across the top of the elevator causing its side walls
to crumple and cave in. Rock and sand spit forward into the cavern followed
quickly by another deafening crash.

The elevator rocked to its side
and toppled from the shaft into the facility. Fire, metal, and dirt rained into
the lab from the elevator shaft and the dome being destroyed above.

"We have got to move!"
Korcheck scrambled along the terminal. Holovid and computer screens began to
light up all along the vast command center.

"That last terminal…,"
Korcheck yelled pointing. "Fire it up. Oh my God, you have got to
hurry!"

The room shook from the
explosions overhead, and the lights dimmed throughout the cavern. Sparks rained
down from some of the lights. Entire sections of the overhead lighting
structures shook loose and crashed down in between and on top of the water
towers.

Pieces of metal dropped from the
steel girders holding back the rock ceiling above. Support braces began to
groan, bend and then buckle in.

Falling rock and metal rained
down. Several large sections of the ceiling smashed into the water towers
shattering their hulls and releasing their contents into the cavern.

"Son of a bitch!"
Korcheck screamed.

In less than a heartbeat, the
room filled with water and became a sea. Its surface lapped up to their ankles.
More metal crashed down around them crushing and smashing additional towers.
The massive amounts of water they contained gushed out like severed arteries
and mixed force with the other emptying towers already pummeling the room.

"I need terminals five,
six, twelve, and eighteen!" Korcheck yelled over the additional roar of
the pounding water. "Their body temps look good. No time for the gradual!
We're just going to have to do it all now! And hope their vital signs remain
stable through the procedure."

Water dumped on him from the
pierced hull closest to the command area. He sloshed from terminal to terminal
in water already over the platform and up to his knees. Wiping the water away
the best he could with the palm of his hands, Korcheck monitored the screens,
checking and then re-checking their readings and signs.

Rone hurried to bring the needed
terminals online. Moving to the final one on the platform, her feet dropped to
the bottom rung of a small staircase hidden beneath the water surface. Her body
pitched forward face first into the rising churn of waves.

Sprawled across her stomach, her
body was instantly engulfed. The room continued to fill with raging water which
poured mercilessly down on top of her.

Rone then felt Korcheck reach
over her head past her shoulders and grab hold of the uniform material across
her back. He lifted her face gently from the water and hauled her coughing to
her feet.

"Get out," he said
into her face. "I can do the rest myself."

At that moment, Rone again felt
a incapacitating fright seize hold of her body. She stood trembling before the
quaking cavern which was crumbling and becoming lost within an underground
raging sea.

She stared at Korcheck running
feverishly about the command consoles.

"Go!" This time he
screamed.

Rone’s body did not react or
move. Water raged over her head and across her face.

"Do you want to die
here?!" Korcheck yelled at her again while swatting at keyboards and
flashing switches across the main console. "For God’s sake, go!"

Rone turned and ran toward the
elevator shaft.

"Son of a bitch!" she
heard him yell again. Slowing her pace but not completely stopping, she looked
over her shoulder to see Korcheck scrambling to the terminal furthest from him.
He struggled to stand against the strong torrent of water battling to claim his
feet.

A mountain of falling jagged
rock ripped open two more tank structures near the center of the room. Both
dumped their heavy watery loads directly on top of Korcheck and the command
center.

But Rone was no longer looking.
She splashed frantically to the elevator shaft.

By the time she made it back to
the toppled elevator, the water had already risen to her shoulders. The cabin
was almost completely covered. She could barely see the empty shaft that led
away to the dome above it.

With shaking hands and sliding
feet, she grabbed the top edge of the elevator and hauled herself to the
outside top of the fallen cabin. Water now completely covered the elevator and
rose around her ankles. She would have to duck beneath its surface to enter the
filling elevator shaft.

The area she left behind her
became more and more quiet as it was slowly buried beneath the birth of a new
underground ocean. She stood on the wobbling metal of the destroyed elevator in
water now up to her knees. Yet she could not find the spirit in her body to make
her leave.

She turned and screamed.

"Korcheck!!"

Only the roar of the water
bellowed back.

In the middle of the flooding
room, she saw him lose his balance to the beating rush of water that ripped at
his ankles and across his knees. With what seemed to be a vicious angry fury,
the destroyed towers dumped their contents mercilessly across the platform. The
combined force of their might pounded his body hard beneath the water’s
surface.

Rone watched him coughing and
gagging stand again from the rising water.

"Korcheck!!" she
screamed stretching her hand towards him across the room. Waves the size of her
whole body now lapped hungrily across his shoulders and slapped him across the
face.

The water had now risen high
enough that she could no longer see any trace of the entrance to the elevator
shaft behind her.

"Go!" Korcheck
screamed back at her. Water poured over his head and into his mouth causing him
to continue to sputter and choke.

Korcheck slipped and stumbled
across the platform. His fists and arms slapped at the command consoles
disappearing in front of him. He held his arms over his head and pressed his
face against a monitor screen in a vain attempt to block the cascading waters
and read the information they displayed.

The area where he stood was at
the topmost level of the command area platform. The water was close to
devouring even this part of the room.

Korcheck threw his body into a
chair and grabbed at a keyboard. He pounded frantically across their sodden
keys. Water ran across and buried his lap. Its surface licked at the last level
of command consoles.

With splashing fingers and a
sullen expression, Korcheck still hurriedly worked.

Rone took a breath, turned, and
dove towards the hole into the shaft entrance. She let the rushing water pull
her from the cavern into the empty shaft. When the currents falling inside
released her, she gave two quick kicks to break into the open air. The flooding
water echoed eerily within the metal chamber. Stone and grit rained down around
her.

With the elevator cabin and the
entrance to the cavern completely covered by the rising water, she was now
entirely alone in the filling shaft. It was almost to her shoulders. She
struggled to balance and regain her footing on the top of the toppled elevator
cabin.

A thin metal utility ladder hung
on the cavern wall next to her.

Rone reached out and grabbed the
wet slippery metal rungs and pulled her body from the rising flood. Heavy water
still churning around her, Rone reached up for another grip and carefully
climbed.

When her feet finally cleared
its swirling surface, Rone stopped. She wrapped both of her arms tightly around
the ladder rungs and hung there. Any sign of the entrance back into the cavern
below had all but disappeared.

Above her, explosions still sounded
from the dying dome. Below her, licking at her heels rose a raging sea.

Rone clung to the ladder. Water
cascaded from her drenched body. Much of her soaked uniform was shredded or
completely gone. What remained was ravaged by the water and weighed her heavily
down.