Jon Harrison's Arc

Chapter 4 of 8

Jon reached the hospital just before dawn, his field pack heavy with diagnostic equipment he'd need for the mining access. The building's structure still held despite radiation damage, and the second floor provided the best view of the depot's eastern approach. He pushed open the door to what looked like an administrator's office and stopped. Someone had been here recently. A desk sat covered in organized stacks of patient files, notes arranged in deliberate rows. A weathered notebook lay open beside a chipped coffee mug, pages marked with dates from three weeks ago. The handwriting documented a search pattern—room numbers, equipment inventories, radiation readings. Whoever they were, they'd been systematic. Jon flipped through the notebook, scanning entries that mentioned wall panels, false ceilings, and pneumatic systems. The final entry stopped mid-sentence: "Tube network leads to—" The next pages had been torn out. He followed the notes to the back wall where labeled glass cylinders ran floor to ceiling, connected by metal piping. The labels read AeleFV, Peripherfy, Numacafy, Fumslioy. Not medical terms. The lettering pattern matched redacted documents from Sierra—partial encryption where vowels shifted position. He traced the piping down through a hole cut in the floor. Someone had already decoded enough to know this system mattered. The notebook represented a choice. Whoever left it behind had found the connection between Broken Hills and Project Cerberus, but hadn't finished the work. Jon could take it and use their research to accelerate his decryption timeline, or leave it and start fresh with only what the tube system told him directly. He checked his watch—Sarah and Margo would reach the depot perimeter in four hours. He photographed every page, pocketed the notebook, and started mapping the pneumatic network. The previous investigator had done the grunt work. Now Jon would finish what they couldn't and reach the server room with a complete understanding of how Cerberus moved subjects between facilities. Sometimes the wasteland rewarded those who arrived second.