Paphos

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Austin felt a little worried as they continued to crawl through the service tunnel.  It was longer than he thought it would be, and more than once he considered going back to the last hatch they had passed.  “Dad, I’m getting thirsty,” Carolina said.  Austin stopped and considered his water pouch, realizing how little it had.  He was thirsty too, but she didn’t need to know that.  He looked ahead, and back again.  Another hatch had to be coming soon, he hoped.

“Hold on,” he said removing his water pouch, kicking himself.  Back at the quadrohuts he could have filled it to the top.  He could have brought two canteens, just in case, but no one planned to be down here this long.  “Just drink what you need,” he said.  Austin was getting frustrated.  They had been crawling for what felt like a mile, and what he wouldn’t give for an extra inch of shoulder room.

Carolina nodded and began to drink, her cheeks were glowing red.  She drank until the pouch ran dry.  “I’m still thirsty,” she said, face tired and exhausted.

Austin took the empty water pouch back.  “I’ll get you some more,” he said.  He felt frustrated, being unable to take care of something as simple as her being thirsty.  He hated himself for not bringing more water, wishing he had anticipated this.  He had to do better, and he could start by getting her out of this tunnel.  It was very dark except for his suit light, but he buried his head and crawled onwards.  No giving up, they weren’t home yet.  Five minutes later, he noticed the air smelled a little bit different.  “I think we are getting somewhere,” he said.  The tunnel came to an end, of which he was completely thrilled to find an upwards ladder.  If this had been nothing more than a dead end, if he suddenly had to crawl all that way again, backwards, he would have cried.  Thankfully, there was a service ladder here, with rungs embedded in the wall.  He craned his head, shining his light as far as it would go.  Just a little bit more light would make him feel much better.  “Well, I hope you feel like climbing,” he said.  What kind of service tunnel was this?  Austin let Carolina climb first.  He wanted to have some hope of catching her if she fell.  She climbed up and he followed, hand over hand, unable to see much above or below, until reaching the hatch at the top.  Austin climbed up next to her, and with his back braced against the wall for support, he reached above her and grabbed a lever on the ceiling.  His feet felt unsure, he braced himself harder, since slipping here would be a long and painful fall.  He stayed close to Carolina, in case she slipped too.  With one arm wrapped around a rung for stability, he pulled with the other.  “It’s hard to get a good grip,” Austin said yanking and tugging.  Finally the lever turned, with a gasp the hatch slid into the wall and a foul scent flooded down on them. 

“Gross, what is that?” Carolina asked covering her nose.  Austin helped push her out and followed behind her, taking in his surroundings as he stood on his tired, cramped legs, holding his back like an old man until he could stand all the way upright.

“It’s another room… an exam room or something,” Austin said also covering his nose.  Something was dead in here.  Austin looked and saw cloudy specimen jars, much more neglected than the specimens they saw on the second floor.  These were overrun with bacteria, the glass was too foggy to see inside.

“These must be the failures,” Austin said.  “I wonder what the experiment was?”

Carolina didn’t reply.  When Austin looked at her, she looked like something was on her mind, whether or not she wanted it to be.  “Can we get out of here?”

“Definitely, from now on I’m trusting my nose, and it says let’s go,” Austin said sliding a set of double doors open.  They made a terrible noise, and he was happy to leave them halfway to keep from hearing it further.  When he examined the area outside, he noticed right away it was another part of the facility with experimentation rooms, except something drastic had happened here.  He saw scorched blasts and fire damage, and a long set of claw marks, raking the side of the wall.  It looked like there had been a heavy fight, however long ago.  Austin ran his finger into one of the gouges in the wall, following it for half a meter.  A creature like the one they saw could have done this.  The wall was sturdy, concrete sturdy, he tapped his knuckle just to get a feel for what it would take to leave such a gash.  He would need a laser torch to get indents like this, but this looked entirely organic.  Austin could have whistled through his teeth looking at this.