Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 2: Aftermath

THIRTY

The elevator opened onto a short hall with just a few doors. I crept quietly forward, Lena at my side while Barret and Red followed behind us. There was no one there, and I didn't like it. Shinra might've thought their defenses upstairs would've been enough, but I wasn't so sure. As I headed down the hall toward the door ahead of us, I kept my eyes alert and my fists up. The others were wary, too.

When we entered the next room, we just stopped and stared at the terrible sight around us for a moment. The place was huge, larger than the small bunker we'd come in from, with rows of thick glass cylinders that went from floor to ceiling. Inside them were all kinds of monsters, mostly just eaters but also grashtrikes, wererats, drakes, and terpsicolts, among others. They were all in different stages of development, with a computer console in front of each cylinder. And stacks of what looked like specimen containers stood along the walls.

"Goddamn..." Barret swore.

I sighed. "You're not kidding. Even with what Cloud said about the Nibel reactor, I didn't wanna believe it."

He grimaced. "I know, Tifa. I felt the same way."

"Think we can access one of those computers?" I asked.

"Yeah," Lena offered. "Jessie's taught me a few tricks over the years. I can get in and see what Shinra's up to."

Barret nodded. "Find out what ya can, Lena."

After holstering her gun, she gave us a thumbs up, then hurried to the nearest console and started entering commands. Barret, Red, and I waited patiently nearby, keeping a close watch on our surroundings as Lena worked. Nobody else was there, and aside from the steady hum of whatever machinery operated all this, there was only the sound of our breathing and Lena tapping keys on the computer.

"Those assholes!" Lena swore.

I blinked. "What is it?"

She turned the monitor so we could see the readouts. "Found what I was looking for, Tifa. Had to dig through a bunch of log entries about the monsters and how they're bred and grown—it's mostly automated, probably to help keep the whole operation secret and give Shinra some deniability if anything ever did come out."

"Makes sense," I said. "That's probably why we haven't seen anyone else down here yet. It's all run by machines."

Lena went on. "Right. The monsters are transported underground through hidden tunnels when they've matured and are released on the surface. Mostly in the less inhabited parts of Sectors 5, 6, and 7 like the outskirts and the collapsed expressway."

"Why just there?" I asked. "What about the other sectors?"

"A few were sent to the rest of the slums, but most were brought to where we are," she explained. "It was all part of the plan. Like supplying the Vice gang so they could cause havoc. But besides keeping us scared and divided, the attacks had another purpose."

Barret frowned. "Which was?"

Lena's eyes narrowed. "They were setting up a kill zone. In the past few months as the attacks from the monsters and Vice escalated, more and more people either fled to Sector 7 or stayed there, scared to leave because of what was going on. There were monsters in the outskirts, of course, but not as many people got attacked there as in Sectors 5 and 6. And the Vice gang never went that far."

"Sector 7 was purposely left alone?" I realized.

"That's right," she said. "Shinra's been herding people over there for months this way, so that when they finally dropped the plate, they'd kill as many as possible. It would've demonized us in the eyes of the people and demoralized anyone who supported us."