Chapter 3
1196words
Jack pushed the door open, hinges screaming loud enough to attract mutants from half a mile away. He held his steel pipe ready as he advanced, boot soles crushing glass shards with sharp, crisp sounds.
"Watch your step." Ella grabbed his arm as her flashlight beam swept across the floor, revealing several curled-up skeletons with black Decay Vines threading through the spaces between bones. "These vines penetrate wounds. Last month a Scavenger got tangled in them—within twelve hours they'd eaten into his bones."
The flashlight beam probed deeper, illuminating smashed medical boxes piled in a corner, iodine bottles scattered across the floor with labels blurred beyond recognition.
Jack crouched to search through the debris when his fingers struck something hard—a metal box labeled "Helium-3 Emergency Power Supply." Dark red stains covered its surface, though whether blood or rust was impossible to tell.
"What's that?" Ella leaned in, her flashlight illuminating the box. "Seen something like it in the shelter. They say it's leftover from the pre-war Helium-3 conflicts—works as generator fuel."
Just as Jack was about to open the box, a muffled thud came from somewhere deeper in the building—like something heavy hitting the floor.
He instantly gripped his steel pipe while Ella raised her revolver. Their flashlight beams converged on the doorway where a radiation rat stood blocking the exit—half as tall as a person, completely hairless, with several strands of Decay Vine wrapped around its back. Its eyes glowed toxic green in the darkness.
"Damn, a vine rat," Ella cursed under her breath. She pulled the trigger, but the bullet only grazed the rat's ear before hitting the wall. "Tough bastards—you have to hit the eyes!"
The vine rat shrieked and lunged. Jack dodged sideways and brought his steel pipe down hard on its back. Several Decay Vines snapped from the impact, but finer tendrils emerged from the rat's skin, reaching for his pant leg.
He kicked the rat in the belly and used the momentum to leap backward. Ella seized the moment to fire again—this time the bullet found the vine rat's eye, splattering green blood across the floor.
"Let's move—blood smell will attract more." Jack grabbed the metal box and stuffed it into his backpack. As he turned to leave, he spotted a small bottle under a medical kit—Iodine Tablets, labeled "100mg potassium iodide per tablet." The bottle was still half full.
They didn't dare linger, clutching their precious finds as they hurried toward Los Alamos Laboratory. The Black Rain had stopped, but the sky remained dark. Grayish light filtered through cracks in the ruins, illuminating the laboratory's broken walls like a massive skeleton.
Half the laboratory's main entrance had collapsed. A tilted sign stood at the doorway, "Los Alamos National Laboratory" still legible except for "National," which someone had crossed out with spray paint.
"Anyone here?" Jack shouted, his voice echoing through the empty hall, triggering a series of electrical zaps from short-circuiting equipment.
An emergency light suddenly flickered on in a corner. A man in a white coat emerged from the shadows, his hair wild as a bird's nest, glasses scratched beyond repair, clutching a soldering gun.
"Don't shoot—I'm Marcus, chief engineer," the man raised his hands, voice hoarse. "You here about the Purification Station?"
Jack was momentarily stunned. Before he could speak, Ella had already lowered her revolver: "How did you know?"
"For two weeks straight, people have been coming about the Purification Station." Marcus sneered, pointing to a wall map with Colorado circled in red. "Shelter folks want to seize it, Scavengers want access, and then there are my 'colleagues'"—he spat the word—"who've already joined Supervisor Thorn, hoping to sell the technology for a nice profit."
Jack pulled out the Exl Terra note, then the metal box from his backpack: "We found this—a helium-3 energy cell. Does the Purification Station need it to start?"
Marcus's eyes lit up instantly. He snatched the box, opened it, and stared at the silver energy cell inside with trembling hands: "That's it! The Exl Terra Station's main power comes from the shelter's core, but this serves as backup—without it, the core would be useless even if we had it!"
He grabbed Jack's arm, his tone urgent: "You want to activate the Purification Station? I can help you.
But I have one condition: When the Station starts, we purify the southern Scavenger camp first. My daughter's there—she has Phosphorescence Syndrome too."
Jack thought of Lily, his heart softening. Just as he was about to agree, footsteps and voices echoed from the distance: "Marcus, stop hiding! Supervisor Thorn says hand over the Purification Station program and he'll spare your life!"
Marcus's expression changed as he shoved the metal box back into Jack's hand, pulling them toward a nearby equipment room: "It's Ben—my former assistant, now Thorn's lapdog. Hide here—I'll lead them away."
"No way," Jack held him back. "We stick together. You know the Station's program—without you, Colorado would be useless to us."
The footsteps outside grew closer, Ben's voice increasingly clear: "Marcus, think you can hide? We've sealed every vent in the lab. You'll have to come out eventually!"
Marcus bit his lip, pulled a USB drive from his pocket, and pressed it into Jack's hand: "Basic program for the Purification Station. Go to Colorado first—I'll catch up. Remember, control room's on the third underground level. You'll need both the Energy Core and helium-3 cell inserted together to start the main power."
He pushed Jack toward the server room's back door: "Hurry—out through here. Follow the railway to Colorado. I'll buy you time. You must survive and activate that Station!"
Jack wanted to say more, but Ella was already pulling him out. Beyond the door lay a narrow passage filled with abandoned equipment. They scrambled forward, climbing over debris, when Marcus's voice echoed behind them: "Come and get me, Ben! I'll destroy the program before I ever give it to you!"
At the passage's end was a hole revealing railway tracks outside. Jack looked back one last time as gunshots erupted from the laboratory. He clutched the USB drive and metal box, thinking: Stay alive, Marcus. We'll activate that Station together.
Ella tugged his arm: "Move it! Ben's people will catch up if we don't go now."
Jack nodded and followed Ella through the hole, stepping onto the railway that would lead them to Colorado.
The tracks stretched endlessly under the hazy light, but Jack knew if he could reach Colorado, if he could activate the Purification Station, then Lily would be saved. Marcus's daughter would be saved. And countless others like them might have a chance.
He touched the iodine tablets and Exl Terra note in his inner pocket, then looked at the USB drive in his hand. The fire inside him burned stronger—no longer just for Lily, but for Marcus, for everyone fighting to survive in this godforsaken wasteland.
