how we descend

Chapter One: A moment

         Victor was staring at the wall of his room again, thinking of how he loathed the darkness he was forced to live in. He wanted with all his being to feel the sun's warmth on his skin, to see by its hallowed glow, He shook his head full well knowing, it was impossible. If he was to step into the light he would fry like an egg on an open fire, now his day begins.
People say hello as he walks along the catwalk as he makes his way to the practical science sector he shakes a few hands, shows some false smiles and walks on, then Halfway along the catwalk he had a moment of, he did not know what to call it. A brief moment of grief when you feel alone and that everything is pointless he shuddered and clasped the railing and then he looked around at what this place was, 200 feet thick concrete walls lined with lead steel and supported by iron struts. They brought down air from the surface and this place could hold millions of people. but the blast was sudden and as the records show only a fraction of the people it could hold were evacuated to the facility. he made this possible he made this place run he kept the people safe, remembering that he carried on walking. As he walked through the door he was greeted by frank the assistant manager of the practical science division and he said with light tone "hey frank you ok".
"yes, sir just a bit tired, have been running up and down here all day trying to make the dreams of these guys come true some of this stuff is just nuts, a thermoplastic nitrogen deployment system, I mean why would we need that" frank replied exasperatedly.
"well, you know how they get especially Sam when he wants something made he ends up giving you every other idea that has been rattling around in his head" sniggered Victor jokingly.
"you said it" replied Frank as he walked away chuckling as he did.



Chapter Two: The discovery

         Out on the surface, a two-member squad is out patrolling a new sector believed to contain a water source.
"how long are we gonna be doing this bull shit," Ethan said in an exhausted tone.
"as long as they tell us to" replied Jacob, both men were dressed head to toe in hazmat suits lined with lead and UV reflectors They were the colour brown if saw them from below but the fabric was angled so from above it was silver so it could reflect the harmful rays.
Ethan gets impatient and starts the argument again, "we have been looking up here for years, others have been looking longer nobody found shit, and it's not like we need this" Ethan gestures towards their rifles "there is nothing to use them on, nobody else survived they checked the vault records no others were opened" Jacob sighs.
"that's not why were out here," Jacob says kicking sand as he walked.
"Oh, forgive! Me, we were sent today to check a water source that we don't need as our bunker is below a fresh water deposit the size of Texas"
"whats Texas," says Jacob confused stopping his walk
"I don't know used to be a popular state before this happened, they worshipped blue gods with lots of arms" (after the scorching of the earth not much information was salvaged so they have a warped perspective on history)
"weird," said, Jacob, he then gets out the tracker that reads the water source is over the hill that they're on he also sees Ethan has an odd look on his face like he is about to do something stupid or amazing. Jacob looks behind him he is standing at the top of the hill. he sees some broken down cars and buses all in a square formation around a tipped over truck. Ethan not seeing this decides to have some fun and tackles Jacob down the hill. they both land next to a metal archway Ethan is laughing but soon stops when he hears a woman's voice.
"what was that over there I swear I heard something fall," said the unknown woman
they see a man walk around the corner and stare right at them.
He looks at the two men in silver and brown, a million things go through his head should he shout should he run but he when sees the gun he stands still. Ethan at this point has gone pale from fright but still has the sense to hold the gun at the man in front of him. he nudges Jacob to disarm him, Jacob walks over and takes the handgun from his side and the serrated knife from his belt. Jacob sizes up the man, bold mid 20's about 5,4 in height average build he then whisperers to the man still standing there.
"you're gonna tell the woman you're fine and it was just a bit of junk falling, nothing else no hand movements just stand still and say what I told you, if you do anything else, my friend, here will put a bullet between your eyes" the man turns around and shouts to the woman.
"all fine just a bit of junk falling from the hill" and no sooner than he said the last word Ethan turns his gun around and beats the man over the head with it, the man falls to the dirt bringing up allot of dust as he does. Jacob checks him confirming he is out cold they then proceed to cable tie his hand and legs. Ethan takes some morphine from his med kit and injects the unconscious man, just to make sure he stays out. they then begin to quietly drag him back to the vault.



Chapter Three: Flesh

         Victor dragged himself out of bed again to his same routine, he began his walk along the catwalk to his office, he was about to walk through the door when a hand clasped around his shoulder. As he turned he saw the worried face of frank, by the look of him, Victor would say he had just run a lap of the whole bunker.
"VICTOR.........VICTOR...." frank shrieked between gasping for air.
"what is it frank, spit it out it must be important" Victor snapped half angry half puzzled. frank was beginning to get back his composure now.
"I just saw Ethan and Jacob hauling a body into Sam's lab" Victor didn't know what to think his mind was switching between disbelief and anger so fast he couldn't see straight. He ran as fast as he could to Sam's lab he burst through the door with such ferocity that Jacob pulled his gun, as soon as he realised who he had just pulled it on he dropped it to the floor. Victor surveyed the scene he saw an unconscious man tied to the table with what looked to be a morphine drip attached to his arm. "SAM YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOD REASON FOR THIS OR IM GOING TO HAVE YOU THROWN INTO THE SUN" Victor shouted with flames in his eyes.
"Victor listen, this man if from the outside" Sam shrieked as he shrivelled in victor's wake
"impossible none of us can go out there how would he have survived" victor spat back at him
"ah that what I thought to look at his arm" victor back away two paces and peered at the man's arm it had a burn mark that read "haven SECTOR 4473"
"so what does that mean"victor hissed at Sam
"well sector 4473 was the site of bunker code name haven, that must be where he is from," Sam said with a slight hint of triumph in his voice.
"still doesn't explain how he was able to walk in the sun" victor retaliated
Sam now was standing to his full height confidently "yes it does as you can see our lights are not UV but they had UV lights all that time so they never had to adapt the way we had so they are still tolerant to UV rays".
victor simply replied "how did they compensate for the reduced exposure, you know as well as I UV lights can't match the sun"
Sam now had a smile on his face. "from some a preliminary tests I can see that there is a new protein that has developed within the flesh that allows them to filter UV rays, this mean that they can survive in their bunker and outside" as Sam said the last word victor slammed his hand onto the operating table "then tell me how do you plan on applying this protein to our genetic makeup, huh" at this moment Sam, Ethan and Jacob all looked a little uncomfortable.
"well that's where it gets a little messy, we would have to ingest the protein" Sam stuttered, victor didn't know what to say he had a million thing he would like to say but could not choose between them, then he erupted.
"INGEST!, you mean we would have to EAT THEM!, you sick sadistic bastard Sam" Sam tried to reason with Victor.
"Victor listen please this could allow us to walk in the sun like...." Victor cut Sam off by half pushing half throwing him into the nearby cabinet, causing beakers and all sorts of phials to hit the floor and smash scattering glass everywhere. Victor dusted his hands off and orders Sam through gritted teeth.
"Sam you are going to get rid of this man and then we will never speak of this again if I hear one word from any of you about this I will see that you and your families are thrown into the midday sun" there was a slight pause "is that clear"
"yes sir" Jacob and Ethan replied in unison, but Sam was bending down to pick something up he turned and had Jacobs gun in hand.
"SAM WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Victor shouted.
"I'm doing as you asked" Sam then proceeded to lower the gun to the man on the tables head. Victor was too focused on the gun that he did not notice the nod between Sam and Ethan.
"SAM NO!" Victor cried out as Sam pulled the trigger and again Victor did not notice what Ethan had just done.
victor turned to face the heart reader screen and no pulse was registering, Victor turned on Sam and cracked a punch across his jaw knocking 2 teeth out, Sam was on the floor sputtering through the blood in his mouth. victor stepped on Sam's back as he walked out saying one last thing as he left as he left "I'll see that you have a nice tan for lunch tomorrow".



Chapter Four: Second squad

         In the third sector sleeping bay a man was jogging down the catwalk stopping at a door to yell,"hey Sharon you up" a groggy looking blonde walked out of the door holding her blanket around her.
"what do you want Brandon, I had a long night" Brandon looked her up and down and smugly said.
"yep, I see that when did you get back I saw you running off with Bruce last night and judging by the state of you, you fucked and fucked off" he ended his sentence with a wide smile Sharon's eye went wide.
"I don't see why you are on my ass, it was you I saw walking out of Mary's bunk last week wasn't it" his smile faded but he quickly retaliated.
"hey, I was drunk.... and she was already out of her top... I just did the rest..... and I ain't staying around to deal with her in the morning" Sharon was in no mood to argue with Brandon so she simply repeated.
"what do you want" Brandon looked a little worried now, Sharon knew something was wrong "what is it!" there was a pause and then Brandon finally spoke.
"Freya went out to the surface with Jax yesterday and,... they did not make it back before nightfall" Sharon almost collapsed then and there, Sharon had hope they would be alive till he said they didn't come back before sundown you see as harsh as the sun is when it is up as is the air when the sun falls the moisture turns to ice and turns anything living to a Popsicle in seconds and no amount of heat generators can stop the frost once the sun falls that's when she knew hope was lost for them.
"so what does this have to do with us" Sharon retorted a little angry sounding but she was just trying to hide her tears, Brandon looked watery eyed as well but composed himself and said with a cold voice.
"we're on body retrieval" his face was cold stone now, no emotion, no warm smile and his eyes looked hollow. it didn't take long after that for then to get ready they both just wanted it over, you see everyone knew everyone in this place and when someone was lost it hit the vault hard. After hours in the blazing sun, they found them about a mile out of vault but something was wrong, Sharon could see it from where she stood. they both started to run but stopped dead when they saw it. Jax's body was frozen solid slowly defrosting in the sun, his suit clung to him like a second silver skin. He was on his back with the most distorted scream on his face but what made this a truly horrid scene was that he was holding something. Brandon gagged in his suit, Sharon almost fainted as they beheld Jax, holding on to the served frozen hand of Freya almost as if he was trying to pull her away from something trying to take her. They both were in shock until they saw the trail, a gouge in the sand left by their only guess was Freya's body Brandon runs after the trail with tears in his eye all he can think is "what did this?.... I must know..i must kill it" Brandon gritted his teeth and go's into a sprint. Sharon runs after him not knowing what else to do, she sees him at the top of a sand bank when a GUN SHOT rang through the air, Brandon sways like a tree being blown by the wind and falls with his rifle in hand firing as his twitching muscles pull the trigger, blood pours down his face flooding down painting the golden sand with a flow of deep red. Sharon stood there in shock until a stray bullet drills through her leg, which she meets with a blood-curdling scream but was interrupted as a woman jumps on her pushing her down to the ground with such force that Sharon hears one of her ribs crack, the woman turns her on her back and holds a knife to Sharon's throat and screams at her "WHERE DID YOU TAKE MY HUSBAND!", Sharon doses not know what she is on about and is crying her eyes out not wanting to die, she just blurts out.
"I don't know........I DON'T KNOW" Sharon can taste blood in her mouth now and the woman on top looks crazed and leans in to whisper in her ear.
"the wrong answer!" she then brings the knife up above her head and plunges it into Sharon's chest ripping through her suit and exposing her to the sun, the women then rips off Sharon's helmet and watches her burn in the sun, the last thing Sharon sees as she violently bucks up and down, her skin burning away,her blood literally boiling inside of her and her muscle contract, tear and snap on themselves from the pain, just before the blood completely masks her vision she can make out Brandon's face covered in blood lying in the sand with the same emotionless face he had that morning, then it all went black.



Chapter 5: Find a way