When a sudden bombing causes The Museum of Natural History to reveal it's hidden bunker, things don't go as planned with people fighting to get in. Lucas, a hopeful artist, learns he will do whatever it takes to keep Claire, a bright student, safe...
As they walked out into the hall and through the sliding door that lead into the median that broke off into the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and stairwell, Lucas locked eyes with Kepter who was standing in the archway to the living room. Lucas turned and placed a hand on Claire's shoulder, "I'll find you later." Claire looked over to Keptner, then back to Lucas with a nod before heading up the stairs.
Lucas walked into the living room as Kept took a deep breath, "Lucas." Lucas turned and looked at him.
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"What?" Lucas tucked a hand in his pocket, staring at Kept who looked a bit worried.
Kept shook his head, "Take a seat." Lucas hovered for a moment before taking a seat beside Clark on the couch. The look on Kept's face changed, almost suddenly he was in work mode, "Our project is to work on the 4th Floor Living Quarters. The goal is to get it completed so those people left in The Mess Hall can move in. To have somewhere nice to stay, other than sleeping on the floor. Half of them already moved into the Bunk Room, those who were in the Bunk Room have moved into the 5th Floor Living Quarters."
"Everyone?" Lucas asked.
Kept looked over at Lucas, "We need to make sure the air ducts are installed, doors are functional, and the hallway emergency lighting is working." He ignored Lucas completely. Kepter assigned each of them tasks, before they all headed upstairs to work.
Claire was walking up the stairwell, watching people as they passed by her. It was odd, there was no crying, no one freaking out, not that she could see. It all seemed so surreal to her, so different. As she stepped out into the landing of the 6th floor she looked around. There was three doors, three signs above them. Med Bay, Medical Storage, and Nursery. Claire looked over at the double sliding door that lead to the Med Bay. After a deep breath she walked over and pressed her hand against a scanner and watched the door open. Inside was bright, the metal walls were white and shiny. It was more of a hospital feel than an actual hospital. The initial room seemed to be a waiting room of sorts. There was a couple chairs lining the walls and a table with old magazines on them. Walking through the secondary door she found herself standing in a room with patient beds, each separated by a thin metal wall with only a short curtain to keep privacy. Claire walked over to a long table, there was light boxes on the wall for x-rays, glass jars with cotton balls and qtips. Claire smiled a little, it almost felt normal, like she wasn't underground. "Feels normal, doesn't it?"
Claire turned around, there was a man standing behind her, pretty tall, no older than 35. Claire smiled softly and turned to face him, "Yeah, almost."
"I'm Doctor Hines, you must be Claire." He held out a hand, Claire stepped forward and shook it gently, "It's good to have someone with experience to help. I was going to have my friend join us, a talented general surgeon...unfortunately he didn't make it." She could see his shift to sadness, Claire crossed her arms.
"I'm sorry about your loss..." She nodded, "I lost a friend too."
"Honestly, we've lost everyone." Hines nodded.
Claire pictured herself this morning with Lucas, for a moment she felt like hadn't lost everyone. After a moment she looked over at the beds and shrugged, "So, Doctor Hines...how about a tour?"
Doctor Hines smiled, "Call me Simon."
As Simon walked Claire around Med Bay Claire began to feel even more normal. The Med Bay made her feel like home, she loved the hospital and without a moment of bunker talk, she began to feel like she was back there. Even more so when someone walked into the waiting room calling out for help. Simon and Claire looked at one another and quickly turned to run toward the main door. Standing there was a woman in tears, she was holding up a young girl who was bleeding from her wrists, "My daughter, she...she's depressed...she was ok, but then the bombs hit...she doesn't have her medication and...I found her in the showers."
Claire and Simon ran over to the girl, Simon was quick to pick her up and run her into the next room. Claire and Simon worked on stitching the girl's wrists, giving her blood, and pain killers. They worked together seamlessly, almost like they had been for years. After the girl was stable and the mother was calmed down, they walked into Simon's office. "Well done, you work as though you've done it for years...you were only in your first year, correct?"
"First year intern," Claire nodded, "I was best in my class."
"I believe that," Simon walked over to his desk and sat in the chair, "I'm glad you're here. If I am honest, I don't think I would be able to do things alone."
"I'm just glad to be alive...and still be able to practice," Claire folded her arms, "Thank you."
"No," Simon shook his head, "Thank you."
Back upstairs on the 4th floor the maintenance team worked to get the living quarters up and running. Lucas was working on the lighting with Hank for a while, they worked through lunch and dinner in hopes of getting the quarters up and running by the end of tomorrow. Claire on the other hand was tired, after the incident with the young girl Doctor Hines and Claire did physicals on all the people in the bunker. Every single person was brought in by guards and sat down to be examined. Simon taught Claire how to input the information into a tablet, which she picked up quickly as it was just like the tablets at the hospital. Simon wasn't letting on too much though, when she asked why they were doing it, he only stated that it was important to know the status of each person's health. That made sense to Claire, so she didn't question further, although she felt like he wasn't being completely honest. The only people who didn't show up for their physicals was the maintenance team, they were scheduled for tomorrow. Claire said her goodbyes to Simon and left for The Mess Hall to grab dinner.
The large clock in The Mess Hall read 8:00PM, Claire looked up after bringing her food tray to the counter. Everyone besides Lucas and one other maintenance guy had shown up to eat, Claire looked over the counter into the kitchen and called out to one of the cooks, "Can I get two more trays?"
"One serving per person, sorry." The cook shook his head and looked over at her.
Claire sighed, "Not for me, two people didn't make it to dinner...or lunch," Claire pointed to a tablet on the kitchen counter near the cook, "You can look up their names, you'll see they didn't sign in for lunch or dinner." The cooks were given a tablet with each person in the bunker loaded onto it.
The cook, an older man, looked at her and sighed before picking up the tablet and sorting through it, "Names?"
"Lucas, maintenance. There is another maintenance man as well, I'm not sure of his name." Claire crossed her arms over her chest, feeling cold after remembering she left her jacket hanging in the bunk room.
"Hank?" The cooked asked, not looking at her.
Claire had no idea actually, but she nodded, "Yeah...Hank."
"Give me a moment, I'll get two trays put together." The cook turned around and began to put them together. Claire sighed, looking up at the clock again.
