Adhara's Sonder

Chapter 3: Under Pressure

The air was thick around the nuclear power plant, the facility itself entombed in ice from the perpetual hurricane that raged around Hudson City. They had passed through the southern boundary of the AirShift towers a few minutes ago and the temperature had drastically dropped since then.

"This place was abandoned after the war," signed Cyrus, exaggerating his hand movements to be seen through the snow. "It's been empty for decades, but there should still be plenty of fuel rods around somewhere."

"How do we get inside?" asked Maria.

"I have discovered an access point," called Adhara, closing her hand around a flame. She was standing next to a large hole in the chain-link fence. The edges were still glowing, and the cut links laid hissing in the snow.

"That works," Cyrus shrugged.

After a trudge through the snow and forced entry through a steel hatch, they took shelter from the cold in a tall room, which Cyrus recognized as the electrical substation.
"If I h-had k-known we were g-going outside the city," signed Maria, "I w-would have worn so-something heavier!" Cyrus inferred the stuttering from her shaking hands. 

"I'm sorry, I should have warned you," he apologized as he brushed snow off her. "Adhara, can you make a fire?"

Minutes later, when they had a fire roaring within an old oil barrel and Maria was wrapped in Adhara's jacket, Cyrus revealed his plan.

"Adhara and I will find the reactor floor," he began. "The fuel rods we need will be somewhere in that area. Meanwhile, Maria," he turned to her, "I need you to find a lead-lined safety suit. It'll cover the whole body and be bright yellow. That would probably be your best bet," he pointed to a nearby room labeled: "Locker Room and Decontamination Shower."

"So, silly question, but—" Maria signed, glancing around nervously, "is it safe for us to be here? Are we going to get radiation poisoning?"

"It's..." Cyrus looked at her in dismay. "That's not how radiation works. This facility didn't have a meltdown or anything, it was just shut down. And radiation poisoning only sets in after a long period of exposure."

"That's a relief. I guess."

"But we'll need to wrap the graphene in the suit to move it safely through the city, so come and find us after you've got it."

She nodded uncertainly.

"This will be fun!" he declared, "like a scavenger hunt—in an abandoned nuclear reactor." Maria and Adhara exchanged a look and gave him encouraging smiles. "Although..." he continued, noticing the harsh shadows cast about the room, "it's pitch-black in here, and I didn't bring any flashlights." His eyes wandered around the room as he pondered. "This substation would be connected to the grid through underground cables. There's no reason that they would be disconnected, but..." he approached the main power breaker, padlocked out of position. "Surely it's not that easy."

"Adhara," he turned to her. "Can you cut through this padlock?" 

She joined him in front of the breaker and held her hand over the lock. A stream of sparks burst forth from beneath her palm and after a few seconds, she yanked the red metal loose. Cyrus heaved the switch up, and the connection sent a hum of dormant power through the room. Cyrus turned to the breaker panel and flipped every switch he could find. With hesitancy the facility came to life, buzzing and whirring resonating through the walls as lights flickered on.

"Subtle," signed Maria as she headed to the locker room.

"I can't believe they didn't drain the reactor pool!" Cyrus shouted at the reactor pool, pounding his fist on the catwalk railing. Adhara patted his shoulder. "That water has got to be at least forty feet deep, ice-cold..." he gazed down into the blue glow of the pool, the only source of light in the cavernous reactor floor. "Not to mention it's probably mostly deuterium by this point. How can we..." he turned to Adhara, who was no longer standing beside him. He spotted her on the far side of the room, where she had disrobed and was descending into the reactor pool.