The Dead Don't Bleed

Depart

Word Count: 2,535

"You found Oriande?" Lance exclaimed, running into the room, eyes blown wide in Coran's direction.

Keith rolled his eyes at the teen's reaction, "Oriande is just a story, it doesn't actually exist." He'd known about the stories of that place for years, sure, it was real all right, right up there with Atlantis, Area 51, and why not throw in the North Pole for good measure?

After the breakout, people began talking about a secret government base that had been built somewhere just shy of Washington D.C. At first, most said that it was meant as a safe house for the president and just a few of his top advisors, and now that the president was dead it was being used to house the lucky survivors that were able to make it into their sanctuary in one piece. People also claimed in the beginning that they had managed to find a cure against the Turning that had others racing to safety. But as the years stretched on, the rumors grew more and more out of proportion. The last few Keith heard was that the base could now hold thousands of people, it was impenetrable by the undead, and that there was enough food to give a thousand people a lifetime supply of food, it was also armed to the teeth with weapons and guards at every turn.

Some thought it was above ground, while others thought it was below, but there was one thing that Keith thought they all had in common: it was a hoax.

"Ah, I first thought that too, number four, but that was before I found this," the man pulled out a dusty old radio, and Keith rose a skeptical brow, how was some old radio going to explain this?

Pidge seemed to understand though and she poked the small device hesitantly, "Are you saying that you actually found the right frequency to catch their broadcasted channel?" Pidge asked, pushing up her glasses, "I thought they didn't use radio waves to communicate."

"They don't, this-" he patted the radio fondly, almost as if he were patting a child, "-is my own little concoction. With enough power, I've been able to connect with stations that use satellites to communicate, it took quite a while, but I managed to set it just so to find the proper station."

"Satelite radio, that's genius, Coran!"

The man beamed proudly.

"So, what did you find?" Shiro sat on the edge of a nearby table, as he looked from the little radio to Coran and back again with a confused expression on his face.

"Well, that's just it, number one, there's no clear evidence of Oriande's location, just a repeating set of numbers."

"Numbers? Pidge repeated, adjusting her glasses, "could they be coordinates? Like longitude and latitude?"

Coran fingered his mustache thoughtfully, "Perhaps, there are enough numbers to suggest that it could be coordinates, but I believe you should have a little listen to decide for yourself," with those words, Keith watched the man finger with a switch before an earsplitting squeal had everyone reaching for their ears as Coran hurried to adjust the clunky dials and buttons on the thing muttering something about "my apologies." After a second of two of Keith tightly clutching his ears, the squealing died off, allowing a single repeating phrase to just barely be heard over the now dead silence of the room.

Keith's brows furrowed as he listened to the strange dialogue, it didn't seem to make any sense to his ears, but he noticed with a peak of interest that Pidge was scribbling madly into her notebook as the phrase repeated itself yet again. He listened harder and realized that, if they were numbers, that there were just too many for it to be a latitude and longitude sequence.

Coran turned the little radio off after a minute or two of hearing the same numbers and it was like the whole room was suddenly holding its breath, Keith could swear the room itself leaned in just a little closer to the girl kneeling on the floor, a small notebook on her lap, and a determined frown on her face as she scribbled like mad.