The CRES code

Chapter Four - Buried Alive

The door at the top of the shaft opened into another corridor. Loach had given the voice command for the lights to turn on, but none of them had done so and Randall had to grope his way in impenetrable darkness.

"I think this is the basement," said Loach from somewhere up ahead. "No windows that I can find, and there's that smell. A kind of basement smell. You know what I mean?"

Randall had never been in a basement in his life so he had to take the other man's word for it. There was a smell, though. An organic smell of compost and decay that he remembered from his occasional visits to botanical gardens. The huge King William glasshouse of Kew Gardens, in particular, that he'd helped finance for tax reasons. He'd been there for the opening ceremony with the King himself and a bunch of other dignitaries. The place had only just been planted up but it had already taken on the close, humid aroma of an enclosed space containing plants, shut off from the outside world. From it, Randall could tell that they were still trapped. Still faced with suffocation when the air ran out.

The climb had exhausted him and given him a headache. It infuriated him! In his youth he'd taken care of his body. Exercised and ate healthily. He'd been strong and fit, and had remained so until just a few months ago when his disease had finally began to become noticeable. Being frail and weak was something he was still not used to and he hated it!

"There's a flight of stairs," said Loach. "On the other side of those doors. It's blocked. Blocked with earth."

"Earth?" said Randall. His imagination conjured up images of a landslide, perhaps caused by the same earthquake that had cracked the computer room downstairs. He imagined the facility buried under tons of earth and rubble. The above ground part of the building in ruins. The same earthquake, if that's what it had been, might have damaged other buildings. The rescue workers might be giving priority to schools and hospitals. If they thought that Randall and the others were still sleeping safely in their hypersleep cubicles they might well leave them until last. By the time they got around to the hibernaculum, the four survivors would probably have suffocated.

Except, no. His own people would want to get him out. He'd been very careful to make sure that he was worth more to his people alive than dead, and he thought it likely that some of the others would have done the same thing. There would be people digging down to find them. Either his own people or someone else's. All they had to do was wait.

Loach didn't seem to be the kind to wait for rescue, though. Randall could hear him just up ahead, searching through rooms, looking for something. Something to dig with, probably. Idiot, thought Randall. He could cause a new landslide. Maybe bring the ceiling down on their heads. He looked up, even though he couldn't see the ceiling in the darkness, and imagined tons of earth and rock held up by only a few centimetres of plascrete. He found himself holding his breath and freezing in place, as if even the tiniest movement might bring it all down on top of him...

There was a light shining from behind him. He turned and saw Jane pulling herself up out of the elevator shaft, a bunch of glowsticks in her mouth, one of which was glowing with a greenish light. Randall went back to help her up. Her skin was clammy and ice cold, which reminded Randall how cold he himself still was. At least he was mostly dry, though, which helped, but it was leaving him feeling sticky and uncomfortable. At that moment, he would have given half his fortune for a shower.

"Found these in a drawer," she said as she spat out the glowsticks, steadied herself and stood. She picked them up again and handed one to Randall. "Better use just one at a time. We don't know how long they're going to have to last us."

"Yeah," agreed Randall. The young woman was turning to help Emily out of the elevator shaft and Randall left them to it, going to where Loach was still trying to dig his way out. Jane had kept the glowing glowstick for herself, so Randall cracked another so that the two men could see what they were doing.