Free The Vitalis Chronicles: White Shores by Jay Swanson

walls. What they were connected to or indicating he couldn't make out.
    Down both sides of the room were rows of tall benches covered in tipped over vials, small gas burners, and other scientific measuring tools. The far wall was shared by chalk boards and tall bookshelves full of thick leather bound volumes. The whole room seemed to be covered in a heavy coat of dust. He tried the doors but they were sealed.
    He turned back to the door directly behind him. The shock of light pouring in from the outside to his right revealed that it was made from a thick metal. Bolts in the frame and door jutted out with a large wheel in the middle as if to seal it from the outside. The upper left corner looked like it had been punched out from the other side as it curled towards him. The door frame was cracked, and the wheel looked broken. It came off in his hands as he went to twist it. He dropped it to the side.
    This would be where the man would go. This is where he would put an end to him. The thought raised his stomach towards his throat, and he shoved it back down. He could feel a prickling start behind his eyes and he shook it away. He couldn't think about his family now. He had to avenge them... that was all he could do.
    Ardin gripped the door itself where it had twisted away from the frame and heaved on it. He was surprised as it swung easily open, almost smacking his face as it made its arc. The hallway beyond glowed a dim red from some hidden lights further on. He could make out cables and tubing twisting and winding back and forth along the floor. They ran between tall, slender, egg-shaped capsules that lined the walls all the way down.
    He moved forward, not thinking to close the door as he walked wide-eyed down the corridor. There was a low hum in the room, the only sound he had heard in the place. Each metal capsule had a small window in it about six feet off the ground, just high enough that Ardin had to get up on his toes to peer in. It was hard to see, but he felt certain there were things floating inside the capsules. Large things. He shuddered involuntarily as he moved on down the rows of containers.
    Where should he hide, he wondered? That rat bastard of a general would be here any minute. He needed to be ready for him. He stumbled once, chiding himself as he tried not to trip on the thick cables that crisscrossed the floor. They resembled lost vines in search of a host.
    The red glow was cast by large lights on the square base of each capsule. Their housing faced the far side of the room. There were four lights on each, marked separately with different symbols. The red light's symbol looked like an “ X ” through a skull. He kept moving, not wanting to linger.
    Progressing down the makeshift hallway he began to notice a bluish white light emanating from the left side of the room farther on. It seemed to trickle gently past the capsules and slowly die as it progressed into the hostile red darkness. He kept walking until a short path between the capsules opened up towards the source of the light. Another thick metal door stood only ten feet away.
    That must be where he's going.
    Its large window was bordered by yellow and black stripes, and had been broken out from the inside. Shards of glass lay strewn about the floor as if trying to flee down the hall and escape their square metal prison.
    The light was surprisingly bright for how quickly it dimmed, Ardin thought, like it were shining into water. He squinted as he moved forward, the crunch of broken glass under his feet forcing him to walk more lightly. He grabbed the recessed handle of the door, sliding it into the wall on the right and disappearing silently like it had never been there.
    He stepped into a large room whose ceiling was a good eight feet taller than that of the rest of the building. Large pipes and winding tubes ran along the sides of the room to a massive capsule at its center. The capsule’s curved face appeared to be made entirely out of a thick