To Be A Hero

Chapter 60: Cherish

"Reporting for duty, Colonel De Luca, Runner Five," Kefilwe says, giving us both a curt nod as we enter the armory building, striding past the guns and other various weapons. We open the side door and go down the hallway and to the stairs, and then go down into the very bottom level, into the sub basement.

"That was a message marking King Jaime is in full support of the Ministry, and calls upon Abel Township to surrender and receive clemency," Ian says over his loud speakers, his voice high pitched and nasally.

I hear Sam growl through my headset. "Literally, I will go and kick those speakers in, if you like."

"If you wait until I get back, I'll help you," I say with an annoyed eye roll. Ian's been going on since Janine and I got back to Abel. I'm beginning to want to dropkick the short man.

"Well, I mean, it's just-that was so obviously stitched together from other speeches Jaime's given!" Sam exclaims. "What have they even done to him? Do you think he's even still alive? And does the Ministry really think anyone will believe he'd turn on us?"

"I heard from New Canton that one of their subdivisions surrendered to the Ministry earlier this morning, right after Five and I left back for Abel," Janine says, letting out a long breath of air through her nose when I look at her in shock. "It wasn't anyone you worked with, Five. A mixture of Deadlocks and some people I managed to trap underground for several weeks in Moonchild's bunker last year, I suppose I might have suspected they wouldn't put a great deal of trust in me. Still, a pity."

"We won't miss them," Kefilwe says, her lips pursed. "We need people we can trust."

"They took a large proportion of the New Canton armory with them." She pinches the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry, but we must be realistic. This is a terrible situation. Our only hope is that we find something useful in Z-92."

"Time to head down then," Sam says, and I can feel my heart beating fast in my chest when we reach the subbasement. At the very back, past all the large guns used to help distract people from seeing it, is a concrete slab with a metal door to the side. It looks so simple, but I know that without a code, without a passkey, there's no getting in.

Janine swipes her passkey, and the door to the bio labs unlocks. She swings it open.

"Runner Five, Dr. Lobatse, with me. Quick as you can."

We head inside. The entrance leads to a corridor. It's dark, but Janine simply has to flip a switch and all the lights come on, one after another down the hallway. Most of the doors that line the corridor have numbers or letters on them. Some have both, and some have none.

Janine leads us through one of the doors, and through some of the labs. They're all clean, not having been used for years. I wouldn't expect them to be. No one goes down here. We know it's here, but it's meant to help restart the world after the apocalypse. There are records down here, seed banks, DNA samples of almost every species on the planet, even those of animals that have gone extinct because of this apocalypse. That's the reason why Van Ark wanted it. The knowledge hidden in here is invaluable.

It's also meant to serve as an underground bunker if need be. This is meant to house up to a 1,000 people. I remember Janine telling me that a long time ago. These bio labs hold some of the greatest knowledge left in the world, and I'm sure Section Z-92 is no different.

We pass through another lab. There's a lot of them down here, I know, sectioned off for different experiments. I think it's just in case 1,000 or so people do have to house down here. That way the scientists, if any were to be down here, could work on multiple projects at once, whether be with medicine, plants or animals.