Zelda Verada's Arc

Chapter 6 of 13

The plan was smaller now, but the top four levels still had rooms no one had entered. Zelda tightened her medical bag strap and led the clearing team into the ruined food court on level three. Mary Long walked beside her, folder tucked against her scrubs. Private Conner came too, rifle up, his black beret low over gray fur. He had taken a radiation wound on a ghoul road weeks back, and Zelda watched how he favored his left side. Behind them, a gray-furred tech in a blue jacket and tactical glasses checked a dead terminal. Logan had sent him up from the garage to pull files. He kept close to the wall. The food court sat dark and buckled. Smashed tables lined one side. A collapsed serving counter blocked the far door. Then the counter moved. Eight shapes poured out, gray-green fur, raw sores, red eyes. Radrats. Their bite carried poison and radiation. Zelda knew the risk before she drew her sidearm. "Close quarters," she called. "Don't let them past." The rats came fast and low. Conner fired twice, dropping one, then swung his rifle as a club when two more lunged. Zelda shot a rat off his boot. Mary pressed her back to the wall and jabbed a scalpel at a snapping jaw. The tech in the blue jacket grabbed a fallen table leg and cracked it across a skull. Teeth tore Zelda's sleeve. She felt the scratch burn, kept firing. The fight stayed tight and loud in the small space. It ended in under a minute. Eight rats lay still. The team breathed hard. Conner had a bite on his forearm. Mary had a scratch across one paw. Zelda's sleeve hung torn, a shallow wound beneath. The tech in the blue jacket lowered the table leg. He pushed his glasses up and grinned. "Name's Hugh," he said. "Logan's recovery man. Didn't sign up for rats." He stepped over the counter and dug through the spilled drawers. His paw stopped on a thick, battered binder. He held it up. Stamped warnings covered the cover. "This looks like your kind of thing." Zelda took it. The pages were dense technical text, the lower-level sealing procedure, levels five and six. The exact weld specs and air-cut steps her team needed to close the rot for good. She had planned to seal those levels blind. Now she held the method. But the bites changed the order of the day. Poison and radiation worked fast in rat wounds. "Hospital, now," Zelda said. "All of us." They moved to the level three medical lab. Mary set out antirad and stimpaks and worked each wound in turn. She cleaned Conner's forearm, dosed him, wrapped it. She treated her own paw, then Zelda's arm. "Twelve hours and watch for fever," Mary said, marking her folder. Zelda sat the Sealing file on the table beside her. It’ll take a few days for the team’s wounds to heal, meanwhile a team of 6 of Connor’s engineers will burn the rats out of the food court area. After that only 3 areas left to recover on level 3, then prepare for level 4 control room.