Isolation-#Wattys2015

Excerpt 7-Biome Labs

I brought up my PDA the second I was in the hallway. I navigated to the maps and found a JPEG file that had a big blue "NEW FILE" on it. I clicked on it and found that it was the map to the Biome's. From where I was it was straight down the hallway to my left, and out the large door at the end, which I could actually see from where I was. Didn't really need a map for that. I stuffed my PDA back into my vest and began a sprint down the hall, coming to a stop at the huge, heavy, 20 gauge steel door. There were four heavy, snap locks on the top and bottom of the door and two on each side with two hydraulic clutch locks in the middle. A more through inspection revealed no manual overrides. Bad news. I wasn't strong enough to try to claw through the locks, and I didn't think that I could carry enough explosives to blow through it.

"Okay...that's a big ass door. Allen", I said getting onto my radio, "problem, the incredible hulk's front door is blocking my path."

"Look at the bottom of the door", Allen replied, "there should be a label that says "Warning, 33,000 pound hydraulic hatch."

I pulled my flashlight out of my vest and scanned the bottom of the door, in the middle was an orange sticker that said "Warning, 33,000 pound hydraulic hatch."

"I see it", I called.

"Pull it off", Allen said, "underneath there's a red level. Press it in and it will release all of the hydraulic fluid in the locking systems, you should then be able to undo the locks and pull it open yourself."

I poked a hole in the sticker and slid my hand inside, peeling the sticker right off, finding the little red level. I pushed it down, it didn't budge. A littler harder, no budge. I pushed down with everything that I had, it just barely moved. Grunting, I stood up and bashed into it with the buttstock of my FAL. The heavy level gave in and there were several loud hissing noises and then a sound like someone spilled a cup of water as all the clear hydraulic fluid poured out over the ground. I waited until the steam had been reduced to a drip before I started undoing the locks. Even without the fluid inside of them, I was fighting an almost sixteen ton door with locks on it that weighed more than I did. I grabbed one of the clasps on the top of the door and pulled as hard as I could, barely even moving it, draining the blood out of my hands and numbing them in the process. I let go of the tank masquerading as a lock and shook the feeling back into my hands. I grabbed a hold of it again and put all of my quarter ton into pulling it down, finding that it snapped open fairly easily. I repeated the processes on the rest of the locks and soon the door had cracked open just enough for me to see light from behind it. I shouldered my FAL and stuck my fingers in the crack. With everything my body had, I pulled the door open inch by inch.

After a few minutes, I was met with a harsh light which made my eyes hurt even underneath the shielding of my visor. When I finally recovered enough to see again, what I saw stunned me.

The landscape in the "labs" was lush and green. There were trees growing on top of mounds and there was a river running through the area and the bluish green grass was still damp from morning dew. I could hear the calls of various wildlife and even see a few birds in the area. There was a giant, steel net above me that was being supported by four, fucking enormous steel pillars in each corner and there were a few buildings bu lit in the tops of the giant Java Trees. There were vines growing up the walls and the trunks of trees and there were even a few fish swimming in the river below me. A giant water fall coming from the wall fed the river and gave a few of the interesting fish the current they needed to glide.

"Feels like so long since I've seen natural light", I said to myself as I grabbed my FAL off my back.

"Finally a signal", Magellan's voice chirped on my PDA, "Skyline, you there?"