A Different Landing

Chapter-32

Raven stayed hunched in the alcove she'd taken cover in with her arms wrapped around her head to protect it. The thundering crack of several explosions echoed through the halls. The vibrations could be felt in her teeth. Then the screaming and cries of pain started. They didn't last long and quickly changed to groans. Slowly unfolding herself from her position, she pushed herself to her feet. Her limp was more pronounced as she moved towards the Commander. "Heda." She waited for orders as she stood at attention.

"Raven you will come with me to the control room where the president should be." She ordered before turning to where Indra had come jogging to their position. "Indra, take the warriors and sweep the mountain, make sure every mountain man is dead. Take Monty with you to open any doors that were not blown."

She nodded stepping back. Running the back of her glove over her forehead, she wiped at the sweat and grime that had built up on her skin. The sounds of agony and death were dying out as she leaned against the wall, letting it take some of the weight off her bad leg. She stood there silently as the Commander organized the men to search the whole of the mountain. No surprises would come from this cursed place. She smiled slightly, her explosions had done it.

Finally, the Commander caught her eye before starting down the hallway towards the control room. Pushing off the wall, Raven limped along just behind her along with several of her fellow warriors. The ground was gritty, the lights blinking. It looked worse than the ark ever looked, which was saying something considering the ark was junk. The dry air filled with dust made her lungs itch.

As they approached the door to the control room she noted how the explosives had blown a hole through the lock of the room. The Commander raised her hand halting their approach. With a glance and a wave two of the warriors moved forward and gripped the doors and and pulled them open.

Raven barely grimaced at the sight of the bodies collapsed where they had been standing before the door blew. Their skin was raw and coated in radiation burns. Raven moved to the computer bank where it looked like the mountain men had last been working. She shoved the corpse collapsed on top of the computer off and onto the floor. It fell with a thud and she sat in the now free seat.

It was strange having tech as advanced as this that wasn't hodge-podged together with spit, prayers, and personal brilliance. Speaking of her brilliance, blowing the internal generator hadn't affected the power inside the mountain. As she'd hypothesized, their primary power came from the dam. The idea had been to blow the internal source so that if they died it would easier for the outside army to take the mountain. She'd been right, thankfully, since they didn't have candles or torches with them and getting out of the mountain would have been a nightmare without lights.

Fiddling with the keyboard, she brought up what the mountain technician had been working on

before he'd been burned alive by radiation. It took her seconds to realize what he'd been doing. She stared in horror as she felt her stomach roll and nausea sweep through her. The mountain's self destruct had been activated. "Shit." She exclaimed staring at the screen any guilt at the murder of the civilians vanishing as she desperately began typing while yelling at the commander. "GET MONTY HERE NOW!"

She barely registered the commander's voice in the radio demanding Monty's presence. Her fingers were out of practice at typing, it had been years since she last even saw a keyboard let alone used one. Code had never been more than a side project to work on for her and now suddenly her life and everyone else's in the mountain rested on her ability to shut down the self destruct.