Zelda Verada's Arc

Chapter 8 of 13

Level four was dark. The security station behind them held, but the real prize waited ahead: the engineering room. Kira Dallas's team needed power restored before the field hospital could run anything down here. Zelda packed fresh stimpaks and a fresh dose of antirad. Sinclair sat propped against the wall, leg splinted, useless for the walk but not for the thinking. "Send the eye first," he said. "Never walk into a dark room you can look at." Zelda agreed. Logan's old Enclave eyebot hummed up from its cradle, its patched grey and tan shell catching the lamplight. The camera lens rolled forward into the dark. On the small screen, Zelda watched the engineering vault open up. Pipes. A dead control panel. Then movement. The eyebot's light caught a churning cloud near the ceiling. "Flies," Sinclair said. He leaned close to the screen. "Big ones." Captain Hills stepped up beside her. The orange tabby had lost two soldiers at the security station. His green beret sat crooked, but his voice was steady. "My team leads. You stay back until it's clear, medic." Zelda nodded. She had kept him alive once already. He trusted her for it now. Hills took three soldiers in. The eyebot followed, filming. The fly swarm dropped on them like a thrown net. Rotting-meat stench filled the corridor. Zelda heard the soldiers curse and slap. Rifles cracked. Green bodies burst against the walls. But the swarm reformed and came again. Two soldiers went down, swatting at stings that swelled red and fast. "Pull them!" Zelda called. Hills dragged his men clear while the last two emptied magazines into the cloud. The flies broke apart at last, dead on the floor like spilled oil. Two attacks. Both repelled. The room was theirs. Zelda moved in with her bag. Stings covered the soldiers' arms and necks, puffed and leaking. She cleaned each one, dosed antirad for the radiated venom, pressed stimpaks where the swelling ran worst. "Hold still," she told each man, flat and sure. No one spiked a fever. No one got worse. While she worked, Sinclair guided Hills to the containment lockstation. "West panel," he said over the radio. "Reset the breaker, then key level four engineering." Hills threw the switches. Lights snapped on down the corridor, steady and white. Power flowed. Level four lived. Kira arrived as the lamps came up. She took in the dead flies, the bandaged men, the glowing panel. "Power's confirmed?" she asked. "Confirmed," Hills said. Kira wrote it down, then paused. Her pen stopped. "You brought them all back up this time." She looked at Zelda a moment too long. "That tells me something about how you run a room." Then she snapped her notebook shut. The engineering room was secured. Power ran through level four at last. But they knew the Containment Control room just beyond the north door would be a lot harder. Up to 4 turrets and 3 security bots could be waiting in the room. In 2 days ammo supplies and EMP grenades designed to take out robots will arrive, then the team goes in.