Remainers

To Those in the Future, Part 9

The inside of the Ackerton mansion blew John away. He had grown used to the modern, monochrome style that the shelter's buildings were designed with, so to be confronted with ornate, traditional stylings was almost a culture shock. Kath, in comparison, walked through without a care, and quickly began examining her surroundings.

"Come on. Do you want to get caught gawking? There are still a couple of guards prowling the area."

"I'm amazed this place isn't already crawling with guards. I know we came in through a side window, but there's nobody around."

"Well, this is still the Ackerton home. They probably don't want too many guards around. In any case, be quiet. We need to make our way here: the server room."

Kath quickly unrolled her map and showed their destination to John. "What are we going to do there?" he asked curiously.

"If there's any evidence to be found at all, it'll probably be in the server room. At the very least, it'll be the easiest for me to search through. Or what, did you want to try and interrogate Paul Ackerton?"

John winced. "No thanks. I'll leave it to you, then."

Kath nodded, then guided John through the Ackerton villa. The building was surprisingly large, considering the shelter's overall size, and the occasional guard forced them to take several detours around the mansion. It took them the better half of an hour to get to their destination, but they eventually arrived at a small room no bigger than a walk-in closet.

The moment he was out of sight, John collapsed to the ground and let out a huge sigh of relief. In comparison, Kath was already hard at work. She plugged a device into the server and began working while John caught his breath.

"Can you keep an eye out for anyone walking by?" she asked as she tapped away at a portable terminal. "Just keep your ear to the door. If you open it, it'll probably attract someone's attention."

John could only manage a tired gasp of air in response.

Ten minutes passed by, with nothing but the sound of the server hum and the clacking of Kath's keyboard. She was working so fast that at times, John worried that the sound of it would drown any possible footsteps coming down the hall. Eventually, however, the sound of her typing eventually stopped, with Kath swiftly pulling the cord out of the server.

"Alright, we're done. Let's get out of here."

"Really? Then you know what happened?"

"Don't be ridiculous. We don't have time for analysis. We need to get out of here before we get caught!"

John needed no other explanation. He quickly looked into the hall to make sure that no guards were around, and the two made their escape. Thankfully, there seemed to be no signs that anyone had noticed their intrusion, and eventually the two of them finally made their way outside.

"What do we do about the guards?" John asked. "They're out cold now, but if they wake up..."

"It'll only matter if someone actually notices our presence, which is unlikely," Kath explained. "I bet they aren't too keen on getting chewed out for screwing up, so they probably won't report it unless they absolutely have to."

"I suppose so," John said worriedly. "What now, then?"

"We analyze this data," Kath said as she held up her terminal. "With some luck, we'll find out some clue as to why people are disappearing."

"Should we head back to the alcove? That's probably the best place to do something like this."

"No. It's gotten late. The guard patrols get more frequent in the late hours. We'll go to the alcove tomorrow."