“You have no right. Get off me, Russell!” she demanded.
Russell wasn’t budging. “Just relax. Hold up!” he replied.
The room started to change again. It slowly came alive. The overhead light slowly illuminated with a pulse, becoming brighter every few seconds. The servos and generators began to sputter back to existence. There was a sign of relief on Hanna’s face. She looked to Russell. He had been right. Waiting was the right thing to do for the moment.
Dimitri’s surprise lingered. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. The return of the generators was improbable. Something else was happening.
Russell started to relax. He released Hanna and stepped back toward the wall. Hanna’s attention drew upward to the lighting fixture as it slowly steadied with a bright, hopeful beam. Russell looked up at the ceiling almost as if praying to the gods above. The bright light flooded down from above, soaking his face with a moment of rebirth. Thank God, he thought. Thank God I was right!
Russell’s divine moment offered Dimitri an opportunity. In a blur, Dimitri railroaded the sixty-year-old man, knocking him away from Hanna and the door. Russell lost his footing. He stumbled back and tried to regain balance, landing on top of the desk on the other side of the room. Dimitri toppled over the top of him, slowly mounting him into a choke hold. Russell struggled to grasp Dimitri’s coveralls. The stiff fabric was difficult take hold of, but it was too late anyway. Once Dimitri wrapped his arms around Russell’s neck, it was all the old man could do to stay in the fight. The men slid across the desk and rolled off, crashing to the floor.
Hanna watched the struggle with indifference. She turned to the unguarded door. Its prospects were motivating. She knew she had to make the move.
Gail was quick to notice Hanna’s intentions. She didn’t like Russell, but she empathized with him in his moment of restraint. With the uncertainty of the explosion they had just felt, there was room for caution and pause. Blindly running out would be a bad idea, she rationalized.
Hanna made her move. Gail wasted no time jumping to her feet and muscling over to block Hanna’s path. “Hanna, wait.”
Hanna stared back, uncertain what to do. Gail’s face said it all. She wanted Hanna to think about this first.
Dimitri flashed a look up to Hanna from the struggle. She stood paralyzed. What is she waiting for? His mind raced with frustration. “Go!” he shouted.
Hanna knew he was right, but her body was reluctant to respond. Gail had planted herself before her. The two women locked eyes. They were thinking the same thing. Who is going to make the first move? Hanna was not the confrontational type.
Gail wasn’t much of a fighter herself. Neither wanted to act first. Gail didn’t like confrontation, but Hanna would be easy to take if she had to.
Hanna looked back toward Russell’s pathetic situation. The exhibition was violent. He was pinned to the floor, and he was choking on his own spit. He desperately reached out toward her. His face was bursting red. He struggled to speak out. Dimitri had him good. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but it was enough to make a person pass out. Dimitri put unrelenting pressure on Russell’s throat which he regulated slowly.
Hanna looked past Gail and toward the door. She was unsure if she would have the courage to shove her from the door.
“Wait!” pleaded Gail. “We don’t know what’s going on.”
Hanna ruminated on the thought for a beat. Logic was in Gail’s notion. But perhaps the fear was the only thing containing them.
“What are you waiting for?” Dimitri shouted again from the floor.
His words pulled Hanna from her indecision. She brushed past the lieutenant and reached toward the metal latch that sealed the door. Gail sighed, stepped back, and let her pass. She turned and quickly backed up toward the wall. She wasn’t sure what was on the other side, and she wanted to create some distance from the entrance. Hanna grabbed the metal lever and shoved it up. The door started to creak open. Everyone focused on the door crack getting larger.
The distant sound of gunfire was a cause for second thought. Hanna stopped in midstep as the ambient murmur of an automatic assault rifle sputtered out somewhere nearby. The door was cracked open into a dark hallway. The sound trickled into the room, but it felt as if it was right there. It was enough to cause her to flinch. She panicked. She slammed the door shut, dropped the lever, and locked them back inside. They weren’t going anywhere soon. Hanna stepped away from the heavy door and backed herself into the corner. She gazed down at Russell as Dimitri slowly released his grip in shock.
CHAPTER 7
A zoetrope effect. The flicker of gunfire and darkness. The strumming chaos of muzzle flashes blasted through the nothingness of a large open tunnel. This place was familiar. A long corridor system. It was massive but somehow felt suffocating. The concrete walls seemed to close in as the last bit of bullet fire sputtered into oblivion.
The sweat-drenched face of Master Sergeant Ryan Pierce reanimated. He woke from an unconscious state of shaking muscles and short breaths. It was the kind of sensation one felt when suddenly waking up from a short nap. What the hell? he thought as the first sight of his surroundings came into view. It was a nest of corroded pipes that snaked down a long hallway. He was lying flat against the floor. His head was positioned straight forward and was locked toward the ceiling. It didn’t feel as though he had fallen. He felt placed. His head slowly rose toward a dim utility light that struggled from above. The chaos of a gun battle seemed to have vanished. It felt like an eternity ago.
Pierce slowly sat upright and looked forward in confusion. His back was stiff. His neck was cramped. How long have I been lying here? Too long! He checked his surroundings. His weapon was missing. His entire unit had vanished. The quietness of the place was disturbing. Where am I? The last thing he remembered was seeing his fellow soldiers ambushed by an unseen foe. He lifted to a knee and then stood fully upright. His legs were shaky, but at least he still had a pair. It was a good sign. His body was still intact. That was good too. He grabbed a large concrete column for support. He looked around, catching his second wind. No one was there.
Pierce quickly jettisoned himself from the narrow hallway into an intersection of the facility. Which way is north? He realized painfully that his situation had not improved. His internal compass seemed to be evading him. Nothing made any sense. He glanced back down the corridor and did a double take. He had made little progress. The unsettling sound of an unwanted ruckus deep within the facility seemed to be a clue about which direction to avoid. He looked toward where the noise was coming from in a panic and raced off. His boots slapped against the pavement like a baseball card in the spokes of a child’s bicycle. His legs carried him faster than he had expected. I know a place, he thought. I can get there through the pump room and stairwell.
Pierce turned a dark corner and stopped quickly. Looking off, he noticed an inconspicuous metal door at the end of a long hallway. He widened his eyes with discovery, and he dashed toward the door in a frenzy.
Russell continued to struggle with Dimitri. Dimitri loosened his grip, but he still had the advantage over the sixty-year-old man.
“Let me go, you son of a bitch!” Russell demanded with his last bit of strength.
The room was getting blurry. Russell’s consciousness was wavering. He could see Hanna and Gail and the door. Hanna was contemplating her move. In his foreground, he noticed Dimitri’s arm wrapped around his neck. The pressing sensation against his throat was enough to make him gag. Dimitri had no intention of letting him go just yet. The gunshots had little bearing on Dimitri’s attitude about the situation. He wanted Hanna to open the door.