The Mutation Wave

Chapter 33: A Big Discovery

The path to the isolated room was surprisingly easy to navigate. Yuxia pushed the air vent gate out, appearing from the side of the room. Her eyes widened with joy at the array of canned food in front of her. They could last a small group for at least two years, not to mention just the two of them. Henrik opened up their bags and began furiously sweeping the contents of the shelves.

Yuxia inspected the ground intently as questions started to pop up in her head. The entire room was made of the same material as her suit. But why? What purpose did it serve if this was merely a simple storage room?

"Erm Miss? Our bag is full. We can come by next month again." Henrik walked up to Yuxia, looking curiously at what she was knocking against.

"Hang on, kid." Yuxia pressed against a different coloured square shaped tile on the floor. "I want to check something- WOAH!"

A small section of the floor separated itself from the rest of the room and started sinking quickly. It carried its two occupants into some sort of elevator, fitting snugly into a hole in the ground as the ceiling closed above them. The elevator began descending despite having no buttons, rattling the two occupants slightly. Henrik clung onto Yuxia's leg, shaking in fear.

"Stay behind me, boy." Yuxia faced the lift doors with her crossbow. Countermeasures to hundreds of possible scenarios flashed through her mind like a training simulation. She breathed deliberately to calm herself, not noticing the slight trembling in her hands.

The lift stopped descending.

The doors opened silently to an empty hallway. Her vision turned a dull red as she scanned through the walls. All clear again. Strange. How deep underground are we exactly? Yuxia tried taking a step but Henrik held on tightly to her leg, preventing her from moving forward.

"There might be zombies, let's go back please." He shook his head violently.

"How?" Yuxia gestured around them. "Do you see any floor buttons? This is just a metal box now; we need to move forward if we want to go back home. Besides, I can see through the walls; there are no zombies nearby."

Henrik let go of her reluctantly. She took the bag of food from him and walked into the hallway. The floor squeaked with every step they took as the two of them walked through the uncomfortably clean room. The boy looked in awe at the surrounding machines, fear quickly giving way to curiosity.

Yuxia switched off her infrared vision as well and began examining an array of broken control panels. She fiddled with some buttons in a half-assed attempt to bring the monitor back to life. It did not stir, but a boot shaped dent caught her attention instead. She ran her fingers along the surface and furrowed her eyebrows; the amount of force generated to dent titanium in a single blow must have been astounding.

Only an enhanced would've been able to kick so hard. What is this place?

"Hey Miss, what's this? It looks so cool!" Henrik's voice echoed from far away, snapping her back to the present.

Yuxia walked briskly, following the sound of his voice out of the maze of a hallway. She looked in awe at a huge machine crackling with red coloured electricity, stretching up all the way past the ceiling. It seemed to be insulated by a thick layer of glass, but Yuxia pulled Henrik away from the machine anyway.

"Have you seen red coloured lightning before, Miss? I haven't!" Henrik piped.

Yuxia sighed. "First of all, stop calling me Miss; makes me sound like a school teacher. My name is Yuxia; you can also call me Red Clover if you want. And secondly, no I don't think red electricity is natural. We don't know what that thing can do to us, so let's stay away and focus on finding our exit."