“No,” I said. “You’ll get yourself killed.”
Makara sighed. “I don’t care. Someone has to attack them. There’s four of us and two of them. No one’s getting out of here alive, so we have to make a move at some point.”
A loud shot rang out in the room. It came from the rubble in the tunnel. I heard Drake scream from behind the barricade.
“Lisa,” I said. “She’s alive!”
Another shot fired. It zinged off the metal. I heard Harland curse from the direction of the door.
“Now!” Samuel said.
We all followed Samuel’s lead as he ducked from behind the boulder and charged for the door. Harland was still in shock at being sniped at, so he didn’t react fast enough. As he was raising his gun, Samuel, Makara, and I all shot him. He gave a raspy groan as his eyes widened. He fell to his knees, right beside Drake, who had a bullet in his forehead.
We all turned around. Lisa was not in sight. We ran to the tunnel and saw her.
She was lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. A sharp rock had gashed into her from above.
Makara ran and knelt beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Lisa…Lisa, you hear me?”
“Yeah. I’m here. I’m alright.”
She was not alright. She was battered and bruised all over, and her blue eyes were shut in pain. Her rifle was cradled in her arms.
“Lisa…”
Samuel took a shirt from his pack and placed it on a nasty gash on Lisa’s abdomen. She hissed in pain as pressure was applied. Too much blood was pouring out.
“Don’t bother,” she said. “I don’t have long. The old man was right.”
“What do you mean?” Makara asked. “You can’t die. I need you.”
Lisa smiled. “He said there would be a time where I thought I was done. He said that was when I had to try harder, or everyone else would die. I tried, Makara. I got strength from I don’t know where to finish the job and crawl out of those rocks. I have no strength. I can’t go on.”
Her voice was raspy. Makara shook her head fiercely.
“No. You’re wrong. You still have to try. You can’t give up.”
Samuel’s face was pale. Lisa looked at Makara, tears in her eyes.
“Take my gun,” she said. “Don’t leave it here with me, in this place.”
Makara shook her head again. “No. You’re not going to die. Quit saying that.”
“The old man was right. I did my part. Finish…”
“Lisa, no…”
Lisa’s haunting blue eyes stared upward. She did not complete her sentence. She relaxed against the hard ground, her wavy brown hair fanned and matted to the floor from her blood.
Makara’s shoulders shook. Her face was a mixture of anger and devastation. She still held Lisa’s lifeless hand. It looked as if she would never let it go.
No one said a word. No one knew how Makara would react. I just stared at Lisa, tears in my eyes.
Finally, Makara stood, her face hardening. She grabbed the sniper rifle. No one knew what she was going to do with it.
“Makara.”
She turned to face me. Her face was harder than the rock of the walls. She didn’t say anything. She strapped the rifle to her back.
“Let’s go,” she said.
She looked at Lisa one last time. For a minute, it seemed her composure would break. Her lips quivered before they stilled. She knelt down one last time, and closed Lisa’s eyes, her hand shaking.
We watched as she walked to the vault door. She ignored the bodies of Harland and Drake, not even minding their blood. Her boots made a sticky sound as she stood before the door.
“This is Makara Neth, citizen of Bunker One. Open.”
The doors did not respond. Makara stood, her arms flexing. The doors stayed shut, immovable as mountains.
“It’s no good,” Samuel said. “We don’t have clearance. None of us do.”
Makara pounded on the door. “Cornelius Ashton, I know you’re in there. I know you didn’t die. You need to open this door.
Anna and I looked at each other. Cornelius Ashton, author of the Black Files…
“Cornelius?” Anna whispered.
“Dr. Cornelius Ashton,” I said. “But he’s dead. He’s not here…”
“Someone’s here,” Samuel said, almost in a growl. “Someone has the lights on. Someone cleaned up all the bodies.”
Makara was screaming. “Open this goddamn door or I’m going to…”
The vault door hissed, creaking open inch by inch. The lab within was dark. Makara continued standing in front of the door, not seeming to care that her voice command had actually worked.
She turned to us. “Come on.”
She walked into the darkness of the labs. We rushed to join her.
Lisa’s body was still. It seemed so wrong to leave her here, but we had no other choice.
The Black Files awaited us. But to Makara, they would never be worth the price.
Chapter 20
We entered the main part of the lab. Hundreds of computers, powered off, sat in long lines in the middle of the room. Chairs still sat in front of most of them. Unlike the rest of the bunker, this part was clean. No one had been in here since it had been evacuated. Or someone had been in here and had been keeping things tidy.
Against the far wall was a large screen. As soon as we entered the room, a computerized female voice spoke.
“Powering on.”
In a flash, the fluorescent lights powered on, temporarily blinding me. The computers in their long lines snapped on one by one, filling the room with an iridescent glow. Large machines against the walls — probably more computers — powered on with low hums. The entire lab was starting up. I wondered where the power source was, and how it was still running after all these years. Maybe it had been designed to do so.
Samuel walked to the big screen, and stood at a terminal before it.
Of the doctor, there was no sign. The lab looked as empty as it probably had for the past twelve years.
“He’s not here,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Samuel said. “The Files are ours.”
The computer was already on, ready to go. All Samuel had to do was do a search for the Black Files. He would have them in seconds.
Samuel typed “Black Files” into the computer’s search bar. Instantly, a link appeared:
“Security Clearance Omega?” I asked.
“It means the U.S. does not want us accessing these files,” Samuel said. “But I’ll try.”
Makara watched, not speaking. Anna stood nearby with katana in hand.
“I’ll try my log-in credentials from Bunker 114. Maybe that will be good enough.”
Samuel logged in. The computer paused for a moment, as if thinking. It flashed its message across the screen:
“Assistant Chief Scientist,” Anna said. “Sounds serious.”
