H λ L F - L I F E: Bishop's War✔️

CHλPTER 06: Entering Devastation

"So Steven...how'd you get this job?" Eric asked.

The elevator was slow-moving, and seemed to have a bit of a climb. After all his time spent alone, he found himself suddenly very wanting for human contact, even something as simple as a conversation.

Plus, Steven seemed extremely anxious.

"Uh...dad used to work here," he replied.

"Used to?"

"Yeah. He retired last year, went back home to Santa Fe. But before he retired, he got me a job here on the technical staff. I was just out of college. Got my masters in electrical engineering. This seemed like the job of a lifetime."

"Is it?"

Steven sighed. "Obviously not now. But before? I dunno, at first it was amazing. This cool place out in the middle of the desert, excellent pay, lots of neat places to go and fix things. But after like three months it started to get really routine. It's just all the same stuff over and over again. Go here, fix this junction box that we busted because we're pushing our machines way too hard. Rinse and repeat a dozen times. Do the same thing tomorrow. I thought I'd get to see crazy stuff, maybe some kind of sci-fi experimental stuff, but they're so tight-lipped about it all. I mean, it makes sense. At first people were talking about this place like it was another Area 51. But..." he shrugged.

"I know exactly how you feel," Eric muttered.

"I guess it'd be really boring for someone like you. You never saw anything interesting? Anything like whatever in the hell these monsters are?"

"No. Nothing even close to that."

Eric hesitated as the elevator slowed its ascent and then came to a full stop, locking into place. "Back up," he whispered, getting his pistol ready. It hadn't yet left his hands. Steven nodded and wordlessly put his back to the wall near the front of the elevator, getting out of the way. There was a loud ding and the doors parted on a small reception area. Eric hesitated, then slowly moved forward when he heard nothing.

Stepping out, he peered quickly left and right. Left dead-ended pretty fast, just a pair of basic benches and a cigarette urn next to a trashcan. Right led away, down a lengthy corridor. Already, he could see that some fighting had gone on here.

"Okay, come on. Stay behind me and don't stop following me," Eric said.

"Got it," Steven whispered, slipping out of the elevator.

The doors closed behind him. Eric slipped back into combat mode as he made his way slowly down the lengthy passageway. He knew this place well enough, as he'd patrolled it often enough. In a way it was appealing: all of the various offshoot alcoves and doors all led to simple enough dead-ends. And the entrance to the security HQ was ahead, one of a few places available at the crossroads hub that lay at the end of this passageway.

In another way, it was decidedly unappealing.

Eric was beginning to get an idea of just how bad it had gotten, of what had happened in his absence while he'd been exploring around underground. He passed a break room where a pair of corpses had been shredded by something, probably the zombies, both of them wearing labcoats. A soda machine had broken open, the result of what looked like a blast from a shotgun, and cans had spilled out everywhere. Some had split, the soda mixing with the blood. In a bathroom, he found white tiles splattered with more blood and a trio of dead men in technician's jumpsuits. Each door revealed a fresh horror.

And he could find no one else alive.

As he neared the hub, he stopped in another room, someone's office, and heard a low muttering sound. At first, he felt his hopes swell: a survivor? But as he stepped into the doorway, he quickly realized that there was something distinctly inhuman about the muttering and, sure enough, spied a zombified security guard standing in the corner for some reason. He raised his pistol and put two shots through the back of the thing's skull, killing the headcrab and the host in the process, splattering a chunky spray of red and green-yellow blood across the wall. The zombie dropped like a bag of bricks and Eric left the office.