BREATH . OF . LIFE . ~ { ReGenisis Chronicles Book I }

Chapter Thirteen [Part 2/3]: Full of the Dead & Endings

                      -Griffin King-

Grey skies, oppressive, turning almost black in the midday as I reached the edge of Trinity Science territory. Now to get  past security and by some miracle, find a way in.

A buzz in my pocket, I whipped out my phone and stared down at the message.

     From  Nicodemus

    Call 9 on your speed dial, give brief explanation of why you need to get in, then watch the way open.

I hadn't been aware I had anything on my speed dial. But sure enough, either Garner or Rin had in put an emergency contact to nine. The number itself didn't show up, registered blocked. As it rang, it let off an odd frequency that tampered with my hearing for a minute, leaving a sharp pitch buzzing through the back of my head.

The line picked up, a low beep in the background like an answering machine, then a distorted voice. "Quite a mess your lot are in. Speak, or the ammunition on the roof will pinpoint your location and ensure not even your boots are left."

Whoever our contact was, they were taking a chance by speaking on the line. But all the scrambling signals told me, not much of one. "I want to reverse some of the mess I've got my lot into, help Rin, check on Miss Andersen." I wasn't sure what else I should say. The line went silent for a moment, several clicks in the background and another pitched noise that my ears were sensitive enough to detect.

"Very well, Mr King. There's a hidden hatch twenty yards east of where you're standing, hidden at the base of a mossy tree. It was created for a quick, unseen escape should the worst happen for those in power. When you get to the end of it remember the number three-seven-nine-zero, it will give you access to the subbasement level. From there you're on your own. You understand, your blood is on your own hands."  The line went dead, two beeps after the sign off that shot through my ears and made me shudder.

"Understood." I muttered to myself, shaking off the pitched frequency, before another erupted from my phone instead of a buzz.

       UNKNOWN NUMBER 9

    One more thing. Destroy your phone. Some hallways have device scanners now.

I dropped my mobile over a tree root, holding my breath in hope I wasn't being screwed over, and smashed it under my foot. A phone signal can be traced if someone knows where to look, walk through a Trinity hot spot, and it becomes a bright target. Not much good it'd do me now anyway.

      *

I followed the contacts advice right to a huge oak tree. To human eyes and ears ordinary. But I could hear the buzz of electrical circuits and a hum much like a computer fan deep within it. Surveying the thick roots that had congregated on the surface of the soil, I could see the red glow of a button deep beneath them. An activation button that had detected my approach. I reached down through the artificial roots and pressed the button. I heard the rumble before the roots pulled back, their mechanical nature warring with the real vines that had grown about them. Snapping green flesh, and moving what was convincing bark in a way that the metal plated scales that made it up were visible to my eyes.

Sure enough, beneath it all was a hatch. I pulled it open and stepped into the darkness. The hatch pulled itself closed behind me, revealing it had a one-way mirror quality that saw the roots pulling back over the outside where it had seemed like opaque soil.

I walked down the echoing tunnel, every footstep like a heartbeat in my ears. My skin was tight over my muscles, raised. I was walking back into a place I had called my home, my life, once. But it felt like a graveyard. Full of the dead and endings.

As it was, the subbasement level was just beneath the morgue and cellblocks. I didn't need to imagine the souls above me, some crying out as if the dead trying to claw their way out of living coffins. Others silent, because they'd long given up or knew they couldn't be heard anymore. Some holding the axe of fate over others heads themselves, the only way to feel secure when there's an invisible gun constantly at the nape of your skull, but those prisoners of this place have the freedom of the halls to wander.

When I reached the end of the tunnel, there was a simple key pad that had seemingly never been used, no fingerprints or tarnished numbers. Rocket launchers, scanners, guards, cameras, so much tech everywhere else. The one exit supposed to be most secure and it's fitted with one, simple keypad.

I entered in the number three-seven-nine-zero and watched a light flash from red to green in its inner circuits. A plain brick wall before me started to un-slat itself and fold away from me to walk out into the sub-basement level. I watched as it pulled itself together, no visible lines left. As if this hallway were a simple dead end. Of course, getting out that way looked as if it were impossible unless I could find a way to activate it from the outside. So I'd have to handle the escape on my own.