Hulk-demic

Chapter 9 "finale part I - the four survivors"

It took 2 minutes from the time the General left for the explosion upstairs to occur. In the lab, parts of the ceiling caved in and the lights went out. Within the secure cell, the four survivors felt the vibrations but were otherwise blind and deaf to what was happening. Even at the time of the explosion they thought that at any moment the slats would part, giving them access to the surface. When that hadn't happened within fifteen minutes, they decided to realize that that wasn't going to happen.

Rick wanted to yell for help through the hidden spy hole, invisible to them but there nonetheless, but Sully talked him out of it. If anyone was there who could help them, then they would let the four of them know. If not, they risked attracting attention from the hulks.

And there were still hulks around. They could be heard thrashing around above them. Rage, destruction. However, no more gunfire sounded after the explosion. Whether they had been abandoned or simply everyone else was dead they couldn't know for sure. But no one in the little room believed General Ross would abandon his daughter and his bomb. So, they had to assume the worst.

The chamber was dark, and it was claustrophobic. It wasn't designed to hold 4 adults. They all sat, each to a wall, their knees knocking against each other. With the air compressor turned off and the desert above, it was getting warm. Heat and nerves combined into sweat and stench.

The General had given them some canteens to help with the expected race across the desert. After an hour, they decided they needed some water. They agreed to a sip each every 15 minutes. By now, Bruce had recovered from is earlier fugue state. Weak but conscious. They were in no hurry, so each survivor shared what they knew.

Between Rick and Betty, they told Bruce of how the atomic device was with the wreckage of the jeep, about a mile away. They told of how the hulks breached the bunker and in the ensuing violence the top two floors were destroyed with apparently no survivors. They told him about the explosion, which they assumed was General Ross trying to seal the stairs to the bottom level in an effort to protect his daughter. No one knew for sure if the General had felt this was needed to protect them or if he had in fact planned to open the slats above them for escape. With no one coming, the distinction was useless.

They, however, wanted to hear about what the hell Bruce was trying to do by going in the prison with the prisoner-hulk. His visions, hallucinations, confusions, none of these did he think he could explain. They wouldn't be believed, and anyway, as a scientist he stuck to the facts.

"Our prisoner was sedate, had been all week, you'd all agree with that?" Bruce began. Quiet nods, with Rick trying to interrupt,

"But Dr. Banner-"

"Just listen Rick. I knew that if the men returned with the fissionable material we would be building a bomb, I accepted that. Even if I disagreed. So this was my last chance to do, well, anything. I told you guys earlier that I suspected that the cold climate might be interfering with our ability to study the subject. And that thing spoke a couple of days ago—"

"Bruce," Betty said the saddest voice he had ever heard, "you had hit your head, who knows what you heard..."

"I accept what you're saying, I do. But still, I know what I heard and this was probably my last chance to act on it. I wanted to see if that thing would talk to me. It's name, what it was feeling, anything."

Rick said, "I sat at this monitor for at least 10 minutes, it did not move or speak while you were in there. Not until General Ross had us open the top and let it out."

"Maybe so, but I had to try."

"It's like the story of Androcles and the lion."

"Yes, but only if Androcles had been the one to stab the lion in the first place." He turned to Betty, "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault." His tears were interrupted by the arrival of the first hulk.