Chapter Seventy-Five
Once they were through the chamber with its lethal radiation levels, the tunnels provided numerous options for the way forward. They could have made much faster progress if they hadn’t had to worry about the man who had been affected. He was, however, deteriorating rapidly and Jessica13 wondered if it wasn't better to simply leave him.
She pushed the thought aside immediately and let Mini carry him on the back of the Minato. The chances were the dosage of radiation he had received was higher than they had calculated, and he might have less than an hour left.
The group needed to push on and for now, they would take him with them.
Radiation levels decreased steadily as they moved away from the core, to the point where the clicking had reduced to regular, survivable levels. Even so, she wasn’t ready to abandon their suits yet. They appeared to do their jobs, despite the beating they'd taken, and there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t run into another exposed reactor.
The chances of that diminished as they drew closer to the city. Coolant liquid no longer dripped from the ceilings and they were able to see the kind of architecture that had gone into the construction of the labyrinth. She had expected to see the same kind of minimalist work that had defined the building of bunkers, but this was altogether different. The ceilings were supported by arches that had been intricately carved, and the pillars were all similarly designed and sometimes made to look like ten-foot-tall men and women who held the ceiling up.
It was impressive and she wasn't the only one to notice it. The entire group slowed and couldn't help but appreciate the workmanship involved in creating the pillars and arches.
"I guess they had more time and talent for this kind of stuff back in the day," Jessica13 muttered and traced her fingers over a column that had been carved to look like a school of fish swimming upward.
"I think this was where many people hid while there was fighting in the sky," Mini explained as he came to a halt beside her. "These tunnels were where they took refuge from the possibility that something would destroy the world above. In the end, it became a statement that they would survive, if through nothing else than the work of their hands."
A small smile crept onto her face. "I like that."
Regrettably, the group knew they couldn’t linger and continued their journey until they reached a set of stairs that led into what she could only guess was the town. They wouldn’t wait for whatever the Prophet planned to do from the outside with the army he led. Their small team needed to accomplish their mission as quickly as possible.
She led them up the winding steps and by the time they were halfway to the top, she could already hear movement above them. Everything remained fairly muffled but what she could identify didn’t seem like normal activity. Klaxons blared to indicate some kind of emergency and she imagined the troops being mobilized to address the emergency.
"I guess the Prophet's already started his attack," she muttered and raised her voice to the rest of the team. "We need to pick up the pace. Everything needs to be open out there for this attack to succeed."
Her words galvanized them and they all but ran up the steps until they reached the door at the top. It was, predictably, locked.
"I think I can help," Mini suggested and moved carefully through the group until he reached it. The Minato yanked it from its hinges with little difficulty. Everyone covered their eyes at the sudden bright light that streamed through the aperture.
It looked like sunlight and her assumption was that they were only a few steps away from being in the open again.
They stepped out into a somewhat disappointing reality, although Jessica13 couldn't help but stare and marvel at the sheer feat of engineering the chamber represented. A massive ceiling arched above them, and what were clearly nuclear-powered lamps provided the light for the cavern. These were drawn on tracks to mimic the movement of the sun across the ceiling-sky.
Whoever had put this much work into the construction had left little to chance. They wanted a society to flourish while they remained in hiding.
Jessica13 pushed forward while the others in the team appeared to be similarly awed by the massive cavern they had entered. They needed to remain focused if they wanted to succeed in this, she reminded herself brusquely, and there would be little room for error.
"Come on, we need to get out of these suits and looking a little less like outsiders," she snapped, dragged her headpiece off, and removed the rest of the suit. Her teammates hurriedly followed her example, while she turned to Mini and Robert7.
"Do you know where we're supposed to go? Where is the central control facility?"
The pilot took a few deep breaths. "It’s one of the tallest buildings in the city. They wanted to have unimpeded access to all sectors in case of an emergency, kind of like what we see here."
"I am constructing a map of the city now," Mini stated. "The tallest building in the city is about three hundred meters to our left, although there are significant urban barriers between us and it."
"Well, there’s no time like the present," she muttered and took a moment to survey their surroundings. The alarms that blared demandingly were a little less disconcerting than the constant clicking of the Geiger counters, but barely. Fortunately, the constant racket seemed to focus the attention of the residents elsewhere, and the resultant chaos might prove an advantage. Everything in her wanted to push toward their target immediately since the Prophet and his people waited for them to succeed and expected them to come through.
Of course,
