ABANDON

Chapter 44 - The Door

The dream was still fresh in her mind when Jane found the alternate entrance into the laboratory. The door was a bland tan colour and where the handle should have been was just a couple of caps, one above the other. It was a one-way door, meant to get people out. She bent down, and using the multi-tool from Michael's backpack, Jane cut the latch. The door opened a little, as though the room had been pressurized. There was just enough door to grasp with her fingertips and with a little work Jane managed to pry it open.

Automatic lights came on once she stepped inside illuminating a long corridor with another closed door, identical to the one she had just come through, at the opposite end. She had not felt it before, but now that she was in this corridor, with nowhere for the air to escape, there seemed to be a distinct increase in pressure, as though even the air was against her. Each step she took made it harder to breath, each step she took made the pressure greater, until it felt like the air had become an elastic, pulled taut, and with every step forward, she increased the chance of being thrown back. Jane used the multi-tool and cut the latch of the second door, and when she did, the door popped away from the frame leaving a gap that could fit her whole body. She grasped the door before it closed.

The room beyond was dark, Jane looked up and found every light broken. The light from the corridor quickly faded as the door swung shut. Jane set Michael's backpack down, blocking the door open. Then Jane took out her portable light and shone it around.

The room was a rectangle and had only three items inside. A dark window of glass that reflected Jane's light back at her. A metal table that was sideways, so the flat part of the table was pressed against the only other item in the room: a door. The table was missing one leg, and those that had stayed intact were bent and twisted. The door was welded shut, and the table was welded to the door frame.  

Jane rolled her lips inward and pinched them between her teeth. She approached the door, but before she had came even three steps closer she already knew that with the tools she carried, there was no way she could cut through that much metal and open this door.  Both the door and the window joined the room she was in with the laboratory.

Jane turned her attention to the window. Whatever was beyond was impossible to see. After some hesitation, Jane held up her light. She pressed it into the window and then moved her face so close her nose touched. The glass was cold. Her light created shadows in the room beyond. Jane could just make out equipment on the walls, there was a machine shaped like a long tube, and fat silicon insulated wires with fibreglass braid that hung down from the ceiling. Jane tried to see beyond into the blackness, willing her light to stretch, to push through the darkness, but it would not.

Jane walked backwards until her back was against the wall, then she slid down and slumped on the floor. She drew her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, and then let her face drop into the safe space she had created. What was she supposed to do? Jane suddenly felt very small, as though the planet had come alive and it loomed over her, looking down on her, making her see all too clearly how inadequate she was.

A scraping sound from the corridor made Jane startle and turn to the door. John was standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry." John stepped into the room. "I didn't want to startle you, well, anymore than I had to. Would you like some company?"

"Ah, I hope you don't mind dust and darkness."

"Feels like home." John said as he came and sat beside Jane. Neither of them said anything for a long while. John finally spoke after watching Jane change positions for the tenth time.

"I couldn't help noticing that you woke up unsettled."

"That's an understatement."

"The dream again?"