Remainers

True Bonds, Part 5

The following events were discovered afterwards, in logs recorded by surveyor Kyle.

What Kyle had found at the bottom of the chute was the remains of a nuclear development facility, one that specialized in engineering new ways to generate and utilize nuclear energy. Nuclear technology had come a long way since the birth of the atomic bomb, and use of it had become more widespread than ever.

Not that it was all good news. Even if governments and regimes shied away from building devastating nuclear bombs, they still used all manner of nuclear-powered technology to create destructive weapons that could only be countered with more destructive weaponry. The nuclear race war had a devastating impact on the planet, and while most of the aftereffects of those battles had long dissipated, it left a metaphorically bitter taste in Kyle's mouth.

For the time being, though, this facility seemed to have nothing to do with that. It was rather perfunctory nuclear research that could have been done at any suitable facility, which was arguably why the place was shut down to begin with. To Kyle's eyes, though, it must have been shuttered in a hurry; none of the equipment had been taken out, nor did the facility show any sign of being torn down. In fact, it seemed mostly intact if anything.

Kyle recalled the state in which he had found the facility. It would have been rather odd to have a nuclear facility simply be a hatch in the ground, with nothing to identify it. There had to have been a building standing above it, yet Caleb had found little that would confirm that.

That thought led Kyle to another theory. It was possible that the facility being torn down was a facade, and that nuclear experiments here continued even after it had supposedly stopped activities. It was a good theory for why the facility seemed so untouched, but a theory nevertheless. He'd need some proof if he wanted to confirm it.

Around this point Ella joined him, and the two began exploring the facility proper. As they walked through the dark hallways of the facility, Kyle took a deeper look at the labs and equipment that were available. They were rather run-of-the-mill, and nothing stood out to him as something some local government would have been eager to hide. Perhaps there was some other reason why they had to hurriedly shut this facility down?

The two descended to the second floor, and this was where they first found signs of trouble. It was Ella who had pointed it out as they were walking across the main hallway. As she shined her flashlight along the walls looking for anything of note, she suddenly tripped and stumbled over.

"Ouch! What the hell?"

Ella's voice echoed through the empty facility. Kyle turned around to see Ella on the floor, her foot in a small hole in the ground. The hole was rough and misshapen, as if it was crushed down by a powerful impact.

"What is this?" Kyle bent down and inspected the hole closely. "I can't imagine the floor being built like this on purpose."

"The way it looks makes it seem like somebody struck the floor," Ella observed as she picked herself up from the ground.

"Was it an accident that occurred while transporting something heavy?" Kyle theorized.

"I doubt it," Ella replied, pointing her flashlight at the walls around her. "Look at all this."

Kyle turned to see what Ella was talking about. To his surprise, the walls were covered in similar dents spread out erratically throughout the hall, as well as black burn marks.

"What the hell happened here?" He muttered in awe. "Some kind of fight?"

"I see some bullet holes here and there," Ella noted as she continued to inspect the walls. "A fight must have broken out. There's not a lot of them, though."