Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 68

Xun stood before the wall again with his dad and the other men. Byrd had opted to remain behind with the kids who were still very weak. They opened it up, exposing the stairs leading down to a lower level.

“I wish I had known this was here, when I lived here,” said Gerald quietly as they all proceeded to head down in single file.

“I imagine those who fell would have loved to have known about it as well,” said Craig.

They traveled in silence after that, too humbled by his words to say anything else.

The stairs ended in a large concrete room that was dimly lit by a green light that gave the room an eerie feeling.

“I’m surprised there’s any power here,” said Gerald looking up at the light fixtures that were dark.

“Maybe there’s still someone down here?” Craig offered as they all headed across the empty room to the only door on the other side.

It opened with a squeal, the hinges were a bit rusty.

“So much for a quiet entrance,” muttered Xun.

On the other side of the door, there was a small landing with chairs and benches and a wall of glass overlooking a room a floor down. To either side, there were counters with computers sitting abandoned. They all approached the wall, except Xun’s dad who went to check the doors on either side, and saw there were cribs with high railings and numerous medical equipment around each one. There must have been a couple dozen cribs scattered around the room.

“The doors are locked from this side, we won’t get through without breaking them down or finding another way,” said Xun’s father as he returned to the group from their right.

The sound of a door slamming to their left, had all of them turning at the same time. Scrambling to get in a position where they could fight if they needed to, the door opened behind the counter and an old woman stood highlighted by the same green glow.

“Well, don’t stand there all day, come on!” She didn’t wait for them to answer her, only turned and returned the way she had come.

They didn’t hesitate to look at each other, as they hurried to catch the door before it slammed shut. Xun caught it right before it closed, and they all rushed to catch up to her as she went through the next door. The flash of a card was the only sign that she had unlocked the door. It was so quick; her movement wasn’t halted at all. Xun only caught the bȧrėst glimpse of this room as they all ran to try and get to the second door before it too closed and locked them out. This room was bȧrė except for a strange table in one corner and a scale.

When they all managed to throw themselves through the second door, the old woman was disappearing around a corner to their right. The hall they found themselves in had doors about every ten feet the whole length of the hall, which was about twenty feet in either direction.

“How?” gasped Gerald as they took off running after the old woman again.

As they rounded the corner, they were all expecting to see her disappearing through another door, but she was calmly sitting in a chair next to a computer desk. There was a cup of tea steaming next to her keyboard, and she turned to look at them as they tumbled into the room.

“So, why are you here?” I can’t imagine they finally sent someone to relieve me. That would be ludicrous at this point. It would have been nice years ago, but, whatever. Are you here for a status update?” She looked at them all carefully, then shook her head.

“No, you’re too scrawny for that. You must be some of the riff-raff that lived in the sewers above. I was wondering how long it would take you to figure out how to get down here.”

“What is this place, ma’am?” asked Xun. He was the first to recover from shock.

“Ah, at least you have manners. Well, this was a testing facility for newborns. We were trying to come up with new ways to make our blood unpalatable to the vampires. Doesn’t look like it worked. The scum is still around.”

“Wait, what?” asked Gerald, finally managing to catch up a little to the conversation. “You were experimenting on babies?”

“I was not. I was merely an office worker. You know, a data entry specialist. I never once touched those babies. Lord knows I wanted to, but I would have lost my job if I had.”

They were all confused again. Xun had no idea what half of her words meant.

“What happened to them?” asked Craig, quietly.

The old woman seemed to soften. The wrinkles on her face grew deeper and more pronounced. “They were all taken away. There was one new girl they had started training, to help me out, who said she was going to take one away from here, but I don’t know if she succeeded or not. It was my job to remain behind in case they decided to start the program back up.”

“I’m confused,” said Xun’s father. “Could you explain things a little more simply for me please?”

“Better yet, I’ll show you!” she said, jumping up and leaving her tea on the desk. Xun had never seen a woman move that fast, much less an old one like her.

“This was where they first evaluated the newborns who had just been born. They would take notes on their parentage, exact age, weight, looks, and demeanor. That device there would be used to weigh and measure them.” She pointed at the table before moving on.

The second room she paused at had a much smaller crib in it, along with a lot of different medical equipment.

“This was where they would administer the first series of shots. It was mostly vitamins and minerals that the local population would be low on. One, however, was very important. It determined if the newborn would be kept or not. It was the antivirus that killed the virus that made us disgusting to the vampires.”